Hawaii, United States – After several days of precursor lava flows and pauses in activity, episode 51 of the ongoing summit eruption at Kīlauea began at 8:30 a.m. HST on Wednesday, July 15.

By 10:15 a.m. HST, the USGS Volcano Alert Level remained at WATCH, while the Aviation Color Code stayed at ORANGE. The lava eruption was confined to Halemaʻumaʻu crater within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.

The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory stated in a Volcanic Activity Notice that “communities may be impacted by wind-blown tephra,” explaining that “low level winds are out of the northeast and higher level winds are from the south.”

In an update issued at 10:06 a.m., the Observatory reported that the plume cloud from the eruption had climbed to about 17,000 feet, or 5,000 meters, above sea level. The plume remained mostly centered over the area just southwest of the vents.

According to the notice issued shortly after 9 a.m. HST, lava fountains from the north vent were reaching heights of around 160 feet, or 50 meters, above ground level. Peak fountaining generally occurs one to two hours after an episode begins.

The north vent fountains were feeding large lava flows across the floor of Halemaʻumaʻu crater. At that time, no fountains or lava flows were erupting from the south vent.

Ground-level sensors near the eruptive vents indicated winds of 5 to 10 mph, or 2 to 5 m/s, from the east-northeast. This suggested that volcanic gas emissions and volcanic material could move west-southwest from Halemaʻumaʻu.

The notice warned that tephra, including ash, could be carried toward communities in the Kaʻu District, including Pāhala and Nāʻālehu, as well as Highway 11 southwest of Volcano. Higher level winds from the south also created the possibility of tephra spreading into communities adjacent to and north of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.

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