We have been pretty quiet the last few days, both the volcano and me. That does not mean that we have not been active. But it does mean we have not been exceedingly interesting. However, now it’s time to let you know what is going on.

The vent at Halema’uma’u rises white each day over the peaceful pahoehoe (pah-hoy-hoy, lava that is smooth like cake batter) plains of the Ka’u Desert. It turns brown on occasion, usually in conjunction with a hybrid earthquake/explosion. Bits of volcanic glass are found by the brave USGS collection team each day, often subjected to roars and/or other sounds coming from the vent.

There are lots of tiny earthquakes. They have been increasing steadily to over 80 per day. That’s a pretty high number. And there is ‘weak inflation’ continuing at the summit. Most interestingly, an 4.3 earthquake centered at Kilauea’s south flank was felt all over the island Friday at 5:59. We definitely felt it here in Kailua Kona. It did no noticeable damage anywhere on the island, but it was kind of an odd one. Most relatively small earthquakes here are pretty sudden… thunk, like the entire island dropped one-sixteenth of an inch. The larger ones do tend to create a back and forth motion. This one was more back-and-forth. So even though relatively small, it had the feel of a larger one. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, it felt more like a Los Angeles earthquake. Except we’re on an island.

But you know… now that I think about it, most of the recent smaller ones have tended to give us more back-and-forth, rock’n'roll type action. Hummm. Makes one wonder if something might be up on a grand scale. I guess we’ll find out.

The vent at night is showing moderately, and is variable in strength. Sometimes it winks out, which is usually associated with rockslides or gas pistoning events. Or night fog in the Caldera. Hard to tell which. There has been no word lately from USGS about the lava lake within the Halema’uma’u vent, which leads me to believe they have not had the funds to fly another helicopter over it. It is not a small decision to do an overflight. In Hawaii, and especially on the Big Island, we have helicopters go down quite a lot in comparison to their numbers, or so it seems. Akamai (ah-caw-my, smart, sharp) people attribute the increased risk to the corrosive effects of the volcano’s emissions. Flying even near the vent is very hazardous, much more than it may seem on the face of it. And the helicopter company has to spend more on maintenance, parts, mechanics, etc. The prices of commercial flights for visitors to the Big Island has climbed out of sight recently.

Emissions into the air remain high. Halema’uma’u is back up to nearly 2.5 million pounds of sulfur dioxide a day, and the East Rift Zone is contributing about 3.75 million pounds, for a total of about 6 million pounds a day of stuff that turns into sulfuric acid, plus all the neat little add-on heavy metals and rare earths. Still, that is better than the 12 million or more that we were getting for a while. Still, we have a significant amount of vog every day here in Kona. Relatively blue but hazy skies in the early morning. The vog turning visible and gray somewhere around noon most days. We are having some heavy rain at times, mostly in the late afternoons and night, which does help a lot.

East Rift Zone flows are minimal, with a minimal amount of lava entering the ocean. But the action seems to be picking up a little.

So. Are we winding down? Or are we in the calm before the storm, so to speak? If anything interesting happens, I’ll let you know.