~ Coastal plain lava field remains hot – molten breakouts in a few locations ~ Small ocean entries continue ~

Lava continues to dribble into the ocean at one location and may soon be followed by a second nearby entry today. This ocean entry is far from homes or roads and not easily accessed or seen from highway 130. Ron Boyle did make a strenuous hike out there yesterday and kindly sent me these two photos above and below of the ocean entry.

The very hot and newly formed lava plain that spreads out from the base Pulama Pali to the borders of Kalapana Gardens homes to the east and to the Hakuma horst fault paralleling the coast to the south & southeast, has not advanced much further over the past couple of days. There are three areas in which molten pahoehoe breakouts are occurring and one of these is nearing a home, but is not advancing enough to pose immediate threat to it.


That's for sure!

One of the factors keeping the surface flows from a more rapid advance is likely due to recent deflation of magma beneath the Kilauea caldera over the past couple of days. There was a brief inflationary surge yesterday but that has since returned to deflation, as recorded by USGS/HVO deformation monitor graphs. Click on the highlighted text to view the current monitor movements.

~Gary is doing fine and I'll pass on to him the well-wishes from all of you who have written to me and offered their concern for him since losing his home to the lava this past week.