Fourth Earthquake Swarm From Center of Kilauea Shakes Ground with 50 Tumblers Prompting for Volcano Status of YELLOW/ADVISORY

The fourth earthquake swarm from the Kilauea volcano's center produced 50 tumblers, prompting the USGS to upgrade the volcano's status to YELLOW/ADVISORY.

Fourth Earthquake Swarm with 50 Tumblers

While the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported a swarm of 50 tumblers from 4:30 to 8:30 AM today, the quakes beneath Klauea's Halema'uma'u crater are still occurring. This is the fourth earthquake swarm to strike this region in the last week, and it is most likely due to magma flow in the south caldera zone of Kilauea.

The preceding day saw a continuation of the recent overall inflationary tilt trend on summit tiltmeters. The data from tiltmeters and earthquake swarms show that the Kilauea summit is still displaying signs of heightened instability. The summit continues to emit very little sulfur dioxide (SO2).

Kilauea is not erupting despite the activities, but the summit is showing symptoms of discontent.

Neither the East Rift Zone nor the Southwest Rift Zone of Kilauea have reported any significant activity. Sulfur dioxide emissions from the top are still quite low; on August 15, 86 tonnes per day of SO2 emissions, which is the most recent figure, were recorded.

South of Halemaumau crater, earthquakes happened at a depth of 1-2 miles below the surface. Since June 19, there has been no sign of any active lava. The dormant western lava lake region is continuously being streamed live by USGS on the website YouTube.

The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Update

To meet varied information needs, scientists use warning levels, color codes, and various sorts of communications to characterize the state of a volcano. Every notice is accessible to everyone.

When activity permits, the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory publishes Volcano Updates for Kilauea. The Volcano Alert Level at this time is ADVISORY, or Aviation Color Code YELLOW, which indicates that the Volcano is displaying signs of heightened disturbance over known background activity.

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The Kīlauea Volcano in Hawaii

Due to its topographic appearance as only a bulge on Mauna Loa's southeast flank, Kilauea was long believed to be merely its big neighbor's satellite rather than a separate volcano. However, research during the last few decades makes it abundantly evident that Klauea has its own magma plumbing system that extends to the surface from a depth of more than 60 kilometers.

Thousands of minor earthquakes occurred simultaneously with the eruption of the Kilauea volcano on the US island of Hawaii.

The Lower East Rift Zone, which is close to the Hawaiian town of Leilani Estates, had been experiencing cracks and lava fissures as a result of volcanic activity that had been happening since late April. On May 3, 2018, the State of Hawaii declared a disaster.

A magnitude-6.9 earthquake took place the day after, and by the end of the day, six lava fissures were each several hundred meters long. Additional fissures and cracks appeared in and around populated areas over the following two to three days. Lava flows that covered 36,000 square meters and lava fountains that rose to a height of 100 meters occurred intermittently at the fissures.