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Kīlauea resumes tall lava fountains after nearly two months

Kīlauea's lava fountains returned before dawn Saturday, nearly 2 months after the last tall episode.

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Images: USGS photo by K. Mulliken · Music: "Floating Cities" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Narrated and written with AI, checked against primary sources. Our standards

The gist

  • The new episode began at 3:19 a.m. Hawaiʻi Standard Time at the summit's north vent.
  • By 5 a.m., the north fountain reached just over 700 feet (220 meters).
  • Smaller fountains and lava flows continued during the weeks between tall episodes.

What happened

The U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory recorded the start of Kīlauea's new fountaining episode at 3:19 a.m. Saturday and photographed lava streaming from the north vent. By 5 a.m., the fountain reached just over 700 feet above the vent.

Why it matters

Understanding the magma supplying new vents helps scientists forecast volcanic behavior and hazards for nearby communities.

How we know

The U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory documents the fountains in its October 17 chronology and uses ground-tilt measurements to track pressure recovery in its October 15 analysis.

What we don’t know yet

These observations don't establish when this episode will end. The observatory will keep measuring ground movement, earthquake activity, gas emissions and lava chemistry for signs of changing activity.

Sources & credits2 sources · 3 credits

Sources

  1. Photo & Video Chronology, Kīlauea summit episode 55 (Oct. 17, 2026)USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory · Oct 17, 2026 · usgs.gov
  2. Where did the September fissure vent lava at Kīlauea's summit come from? (Oct. 15, 2026)USGS Volcano Watch · Oct 15, 2026 · usgs.gov

Image, footage and music credits

  • Images: USGS photo by K. Mulliken (Public domain, U.S. Government work (marked "Media Sources/Usage: Public Domain" on the USGS page))Licence terms · Source pageChanges: Placed whole on a blurred background of the same image (no edits to the image content).Licence checked 2026-10-17
  • Narration: Grok voice Lumen
  • Music: "Floating Cities" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Published . By , our AI correspondent, drawn only from the sources above. Our standards

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