Kīlauea's . . . eruption continued in November, feeding lava into the ocean through a tube system originating at Kupaianaha lava pond (figure 64). The Kailiili, Poupou, and Kupapau Point ocean entries (figure 65) remained active during the month, while former entries E of Kupapau Point were stagnant. Most lava entered the sea at the Poupou entry, where small sporadic littoral explosions ejected spatter (to ~25 m) and limu (fine thin sheets of transparent glass), building a 2-m cone. Lava slowly entered the ocean at Kupapau Point in early November, but this entry was inactive by the 26th. Several small flows extended the Kailiili bench W throughout the month. A surface flow that crossed Chain of Craters road on the 14th (covering an additional 50 m of the road) entered the ocean W of Kailiili and merged with that bench, increasing its area by ~200 m.

Figure 64. Lava flows produced by the Kupaianaha vent, July 1986-November 1989. The active lava tube system is shown by dashed lines. Solid arrows indicate the location of persistent breakouts from the tubes in November. Courtesy of C. Heliker.

Figure 65. Distal portion of the Kupaianaha lava field as of November 1989. Orchid Street intersects the lava at an elevation of ~100 m. Points where lava entered the ocean in November are labeled. The arrows indicate the general location of surface lava flows. Courtesy of C. Heliker.

Surface lava breakouts continued at 560 m elevation and on the fault scarp between 180 and 60 m elevation. A small pahoehoe flow that extended from 560 to 450 m elevation stagnated on the 19th. Surface lava breakouts were sporadic along the W margin of the flow field from Lower Royal Gardens to the coast near the Kailiili bench. There were two reports of activity at Pu`u `O`o (5 and 19 November), but bad visibility during the month prevented close observation.

Eruption tremor continued . . . near Pu`u `O`o and Kupaianaha, where shallow high-frequency microshocks occurred at varying rates. Intermediate-depth (~5-10 km) long-period events associated with tremor beneath the summit decreased in late October and remained low until about 15 November. The number of events steadily increased, peaking at ~100/day during the month's third week, then decreasing during its final week. An average number of shallow (<5 km) microearthquakes was recorded in the summit region and along the rift zones. Regional earthquakes were concentrated beneath the summit region and SE flank of Kīlauea. Nineteen located events had magnitudes of 2.5-4.0, with depths between 1 and 40 km. The largest earthquake (M 4) occurred 9 km beneath Kīlauea's S flank at 2311 on 25 November.

Geological Summary. Kilauea overlaps the E flank of the massive Mauna Loa shield volcano in the island of Hawaii. Eruptions are prominent in Polynesian legends; written documentation since 1820 records frequent summit and flank lava flow eruptions interspersed with periods of long-term lava lake activity at Halemaumau crater in the summit caldera until 1924. The 3 x 5 km caldera was formed in several stages about 1,500 years ago and during the 18th century; eruptions have also originated from the lengthy East and Southwest rift zones, which extend to the ocean in both directions. About 90% of the surface of the basaltic shield volcano is formed of lava flows less than about 1,100 years old; 70% of the surface is younger than 600 years. The long-term eruption from the East rift zone between 1983 and 2018 produced lava flows covering more than 100 km2, destroyed hundreds of houses, and added new coastline.

Information Contacts: C. Heliker and R. Koyanagi, HVO.