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The distribution of earthquakes beneath the upper East Rift Zone along Chain of Craters Road between Puhimau Crater and Hilina Pali Road and even beneath the southern caldera region (Luamanu Crater and Keanakākoʻi Crater, and southeastward to Pauahi Crater) during 27 April and 2 May (image: HVO)

The volcano’s summit area has been facing a heightened series of an earthquake swarm without eruptive activity by now.

More than 1,600 earthquakes have occurred within six days since 27 April. Quakes have been located mostly beneath the upper East Rift Zone along Chain of Craters Road between Puhimau Crater and Hilina Pali Road but have since expanded northwestward to Luamanu Crater and Keanakākoʻi Crater, and southeastward to Pauahi Crater.
About 300 further events have been detected south of the Halemaʻumaʻu within the outer boundaries of Kaluapele (Kīlauea caldera). Most of the events have been smaller than M 2.0 at depths between 2-4 km (1-2 miles). The strongest registered seismic event was M 3.3, which occurred late in the evening of 28 April. Additionally, M 3.1 earthquake occurred on 2 May at 4:07 PM local time. Periods of low-frequency earthquakes are typically associated with phenomena such as magmatic heating and its movements and fluid-filled cavities. Over the past week beneath the Halemaʻumaʻu crater, earthquakes have shifted to the south part of Kaluapele during the unrest.

This seismic activity indicates a growing pressure within the magmatic system beneath the Kīlauea summit region.

The HVO aded: „Patterns of ground motion and tilt show that the magma bodies below the southern end of Kaluapele (referred to as the south caldera reservoir) and below Halemaʻumaʻu are inflating. These bodies are long-term features of Kīlauea’s summit magma plumbing system. They both began to inflate in tandem around October 2023 and continued to inflate through late January. Stored magma drained from these chambers and fed the intrusion into the Southwest Rift Zone in late January–early February 2024. Deformation levels indicate that the south caldera reservoir has regained the magma that it lost during the intrusion. Current pressurization levels are now even with pre-intrusion levels after 2 months of magmatic recharge. The Sand Hill tiltmeter (SDH) is more sensitive to the deeper south caldera magma reservoir and has shown steady inflationary tilt since early February. The Uēkahuna tiltmeter (UWE) is more sensitive to the Halemaʻumaʻu reservoir, which was the source for recent summit eruptions. UWE has been slower to accumulate tilt change, implying that the south caldera reservoir continues to be the focus of inflation.“

The alert level for the volcano remains at Yellow, but this could change quickly.
Source: Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Geologi volcano activity update 2 May 2024