During 18-23 June HVO reported that the circulating lava lake occasionally rose and fell in the deep pit within Kilauea's Halema‘uma‘u Crater. The lava-lake level dropped several meters on 21 June then returned to an estimated 34-35 m below the floor of Halema‘uma‘u Crater by 22 June. Gas emissions remained elevated. The ambient SO₂ concentrations near the vent varied greatly but remained higher than 10 ppm, and frequently exceeded 50 ppm (upper limit of the detector) during times with moderate trade winds. The plume from the vent continued to deposit variable amounts of ash, spatter, and Pele's hair onto nearby areas; smaller particles may have been dropped several kilometers away.

At Pu‘u ‘O‘o Crater, glow emanated from spatter cones on the N, SE, and S portions of the crater floor, and from a small lava lake in the NE spatter cone. On 17 June geologists mapped five small breakouts as far as 7 km NE from Pu‘u ‘O‘o. The local webcam captured views of the active break-out flows at the N base of Pu‘u ‘O‘o cone as well as distant smoke plumes from the slow-moving lava flow burning vegetation along the NE margin of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow. Overall, however, this slow-moving flow has appeared to be weakening over the past few months.

The Aviation Color Code remained at Orange and the Volcano Alert Level remained at Watch.

Geological Summary. Kilauea overlaps the E flank of the massive Mauna Loa shield volcano in the island of Hawaii. Eruptions are prominent in Polynesian legends; written documentation since 1820 records frequent summit and flank lava flow eruptions interspersed with periods of long-term lava lake activity at Halemaumau crater in the summit caldera until 1924. The 3 x 5 km caldera was formed in several stages about 1,500 years ago and during the 18th century; eruptions have also originated from the lengthy East and Southwest rift zones, which extend to the ocean in both directions. About 90% of the surface of the basaltic shield volcano is formed of lava flows less than about 1,100 years old; 70% of the surface is younger than 600 years. The long-term eruption from the East rift zone between 1983 and 2018 produced lava flows covering more than 100 km2, destroyed hundreds of houses, and added new coastline.

Source: US Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO)