Lava continued to flow down the Pulama Pali and across the coastal flat, but has not yet entered the ocean. During the past few weeks, the flows have covered about 230 m of the private access road to Royal Gardens and are now farther east than any active flows since 1992. Activity is robust on the coastal flat near the truncated road that formerly accessed Royal Gardens but that has long since been cut off by lava. Flows in the area were observed in the last few days to be feeding dozens of breakouts and to be rapidly inflating. Ground observers can often hear methane explosions from burning vegetation along the base of Pulama pali. This activity is part of the "east flow," but lava in the old "west flow" reappeared on the morning of 28 March. Overall, volcanic tremor near Pu`u `O`o was low-to-moderate and tremor at Kilauea's caldera was low. For approximately the previous 2 weeks, small low-frequency earthquakes occurred below the caldera. Tiltmeters in the summit area and along the east rift zone are showing no significant deformation.

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.

Source: US Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO)