There’s enough activity in the area south-southwest of Kilauea caledera that on Oct. 18, the U.S. National Park Service announced the closure of one nearby trail, and a portion of another. Mauna Iki Trail, and part of the the Kaʻū Desert/Footprints Trail closed for safety reasons.
Rhonda Loh, Superintendent of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes said of the closure: “Safety is always our top priority, and the potential hazards in this region are significant and could include elevated volcanic gases, dangerous lava activity, and damaging earthquakes with very little notice. After any potential eruptive activity occurs, park managers will re-evaluate high hazard areas and access.”
The unrest hasn’t stopped, although “the most recent eruption at Kīlauea’s summit began on Sept. 10, 2023,” according to an Oct. 29 report from Maui Now. The short-lived eruption brought fissures into “the Halema’uma’u crater floor and to the east on the “down-dropped block,” a remnant of the older caldera floor that collapsed in 2018,” the outlet reported. Activity has continued, starting on Oct. 4, and have ranged in frequency from 20 events a day to 150+.
Visitors are asked to check the park website for closure or hazard alerts and make sure they plan ahead. They can check this website to make sure they’re going to see what they want to see: www.nps.gov/hawaiivolcanoes.
The U.S. Geological Survey has a Volcano Watch and installed two webcams in the south caldera regions to monitor the region and the unrest. In the news release talking about those cameras and the volcano watch itself, the USGS says that there could be three possible outcomes: accumulation of magma without eruption; magma accumulation with a summit eruption inside the caldera; or magma accumulation with a summit eruption outside the caldera. This activity is not new though, as “Numerous intrusions have been recorded here in the past, most recently in 2021 and 2015. In August 2021, an intrusion here occurred over about a week and was followed by an eruption within Halema‘uma‘u about a month later (September 29, 2021). Intrusions also occurred here in the 1960s, 1970s, early 1980s, and in 2006. But only one, in December 1974, led to an eruption. It migrated southward from the caldera and then reached the surface, erupting as a series of short fissure segments with a total length of 5 km (3 mi), as it turned southwest
