Kilauea Volcano is spectacular today.

I ran in to this video recently. It includes a public talk (cued up to that point) by the HVO Scientist-in-Charge for Volcano Awareness Month. One thing I learned is that the vents are two, kilometer-long, tubes about 10 m in diameter going down to the upper magma chamber and they are quite straight.

The talk is wrapped in a video from a the local channels that monitors and analyzes things.

With all of that said, this 40-episode eruption might be changing or even ending soon. While most indicators show that the summit magma chamber is repressurizing as it has done repeatedly in the last year with a potential eruptive episode in about a week, there is something happening that has only happened once in the last year. There have been this week several "swarms" of small (1-2 mag) earthquakes. Each lasts about an hour and is located mostly in the SE region of the caldera. The other time something like this happened was before episode 30 in early August. The result was the opening of a new extension of the original Dec 2024 fissure that erupted a modest amount of lava and then sealed up. A new swarm started about 25 minutes ago.

These kind of earthquakes generally mean that magma is moving through rock cracking it open to find a new path.

The net result may be:

1. Nothing, just a modest restructuring of the magma storage body
2. Another brief fissure in the crater during the next episode
3. A shift of the eruption to a different part of the crater, ending the fountaining phase.
4. Magma flows out of the upper summit chamber ending the eruption completely.

Things to look out for.

New volcano watch article about the small earthquakes at the summit.




Spattering in the North vent precursor to a potential Episode 41. Nice views in the V1 cam.

Overnight the overflows started. Like last time it has been pretty steady, but low in effusion state. Hours to days to expected fountaining.

And away we go:




It's kind of crazy that the early phase almost reaches the old rim now.

Today we are really meeting the expectations of the thread title:




Somehow I suspect the left (south) vent fountain is more than 500 m.


Kilauea Message 2026-01-24 12:59:35 HST
Tephra fall from episode 41 has been reported as far as Fern Acres, and is continuing in nearby communities, on HWY 11 and within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Please follow the advice of the Park & Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency.
Kilauea Message 2026-01-24 12:27:14 HST
Tephra fall from episode 41 around 1 foot in diameter is falling on Highway 11 between the park entrance and Volcano Village and is shattering on impact. Please follow the advice of the Park and Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency.
Kilauea Message 2026-01-24 12:13:51 HST
Tephra fall from episode 41 has been reported in public viewing areas within the National Park, Volcano Village and Mauna Loa Estates and Highway 11. Please follow the advice of the Park and Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency.

Photo show from episode 41:






maximum heights reaching 460-480 m (1500-1575 ft) (!)

Tephra fall out from Episode 41:




And an article about it:



(Next eruption is expected mid- to late- next week.

Next episode is still expected this week, perhaps as soon as tomorrow. No lava has been seen yet, but the magma is building up in the vent tubes with persistent surface glow. (The inflation measures are also now favorable.)

Here is a somewhat grainy image of a rainy, pre-sunrise look across the crater to the glowing vent openings.



You can see how high the vent openings are on the crater wall relative to the "floor". (The mound behind them to the left was built in this eruption.) They started not just on the current floor but about 60-80 m lower.