Pacific island eruptions

Abstract

Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii Island, Hawaii, (19.43°N, 155.29° W). All times are local (GMT — 10 hours). A small, twenty‐four hour eruption, Kilauea's first since September 1977, began at 0805 on 16 November from the upper East Rift Zone. A swarm of earthquakes centered south of Kilauea Caldera and in the upper East Rift Zone started at about 2130 on November 15 and continued through the night. Harmonic tremor in the upper East Rift Zone began at 0630 the next morning, followed at 0805 by the opening of two en echelon fissures in rapid succession, the first east of Pauahi Crater (about 5 km southeast of the caldera rim), the second inside the western pit of Pauahi. Lava fountains from the fissures usually rose only 2‐10 m, but occasionally, they reached a height of about 50 m. Lava from the eastern fissure flowed a short distance downslope, cutting a road; lava from the fissure inside Pauahi Crater was confined as a small lake. Late in the eruption, a third fissure became active west of Pauahi, as the eastern fissure ceased erupting. By 0800 on November 17, the eruption and all accompanying seismicity had stopped.