Kīlauea eruption pauses after ash reaches Hawaii Island neighborhoods

Fine ash and strands of volcanic glass landed in Hawaii Island neighborhoods northeast of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park as Kīlauea’s latest summit fountain shut down abruptly before dawn on May 15. The fallout reached Mauna Loa Estates, Ōhia Estates, Volcano village and Royal Hawaiian Estates, turning a closed-area eruption into a neighborhood nuisance for residents downwind of Halemaumau crater.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Episode 47 ended at 12:27 a.m. HST after 9 hours of continuous lava fountaining from the north vent. With the eruption paused, the agency lowered Kīlauea from WATCH to ADVISORY and dropped the aviation color code from ORANGE to YELLOW.

Most tephra fell inside the closed area of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, but the outskirts of the fallout field still mattered. Sparse reticulite, the light, bubbly volcanic glass that can be sharp and abrasive, accumulated up to 3 inches, or 5 centimeters, at the Uēkahuna and Keanakākoi overlooks. That is the kind of material that complicates cleanup, coats vehicles and walkways, and adds another layer of disruption for people living and working on the volcano’s northeast flank.

The north fountain climbed to about 650 feet, or 200 meters, by around 5 p.m. HST on May 14, while the eruption produced an estimated 6.8 million cubic yards of lava. By the end of the episode, the lava had covered about 30% to 40% of the Halemaumau crater floor. The Uēkahuna tiltmeter recorded about 15.6 microradians of deflationary tilt during the episode, a sign of the summit system’s rapid change as the fountain built and then eased.

Episode 47 began at 3:27 p.m. HST on May 14, after precursory overflows started at 2:57 a.m. and about 75 of them were seen from the south vent. The south vent never fountained, but it spattered early and was gradually buried by tephra from the north vent. The final minute brought strong gas jetting and large flames from both vents before the system cut off.

Kīlauea has been erupting intermittently in Halemaumau crater since Dec. 23, 2024, and the current pattern remains a summit eruption largely contained inside the caldera. But as this episode showed, the effect is not confined to the park boundary. When the next fountain starts, the communities downwind are likely to be the first to feel it again.