Mauna Loa and Kilauea eruptions halt, HVO reports

UPDATED 9:45 a.m.

The county’s Traffic Hazard Mitigation Route will close after Thursday now that the Mauna Loa eruption appears to be over.

Civil Defense Administrator Talmadge Magno said that the lava viewing route on Old Saddle Road will close tonight at midnight, and will be open from 4:30 p.m. until midnight Wednesday and Thursday before being permanently shut down.

Ken Hon, scientist in charge for the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said the eruption has paused “probably permanently” and that there is no historical precedent for an eruption in Mauna Loa’s Northeast Rift Zone pausing and restarting. But, he went on, HVO will continue to monitor the volcano for another three months before it declares the eruption officially over.

The Mauna Loa eruption produced somewhere between 200 million and 250 million cubic meters of material, which Hon said was about one-fifth of the material produced during the 2018 Kilauea eruption.

Hon noted the curiosity that the Kilauea eruption stopped at almost the same time as the Mauna Loa eruption, but added that tremors associated with the Kilauea eruption had been diminishing for weeks before the Mauna Loa eruption began. Nonetheless, Hon said HVO will be combing through data to determine whether there is a greater connection between the two eruptions.

Magno said the state is in the process of figuring out how to eventually reopen the Mauna Loa Observatory Access Road, which was cut off by lava from Mauna Loa, but stated that it will remain closed for the time being. Although there is no longer any liquid lava from the eruption, Hon said much of the lava is still hot enough to boil water, so it is still dangerous.

Original story:

Both volcanic eruptions on the Big Island have stopped, reports the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

This morning, HVO reported that the lava supply to Fissure 3 on Mauna Loa’s northeast flank ceased on Dec. 10 and that sulfur dioxide emission have diminished to “near pre-eruption background levels.”

Meanwhile, tremors and earthquakes associated with the eruption have similarly diminished.

While parts of the lava flow may continue to glow for the next days or weeks as it continues to cool, HVO does not expect eruptive activity to restart based on previous eruptions.

At the same time, HVO reports that the lava supply to Halema‘uma‘u on Kilauea ceased on Dec. 9, and that volcanic gas emissions from that volcano have also reduced.

Unlike Mauna Loa, HVO reports that Kilauea still has the potential to resume its eruption or begin a new one near the summit, based on continued seismicity and terrain deformation.

HVO lowered its alert level for ground-based hazards from Watch to Advisory and its aviation color code from Orange to Yellow for both volcanoes. However, HVO will continue to closely monitor the two volcanoes for signs of renewed activity.