Kīlauea is restless again. A shallow intrusion of magma moved beneath the volcano’s summit the night of September 30 into October 1, triggering elevated earthquake activity and sending lava overflows, spatter and large flames from the north and south vents inside Halemaʻumaʻu crater.
This USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory timelapse — one frame roughly every two minutes — compresses the night into seconds, showing the summit glowing brighter through the evening as the intrusion peaked.
The intrusion began the afternoon of September 30 and ended around 4 a.m. HST on October 1, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory’s October 2 daily update. Overflows from the north and south vents paused during the early stages of the intrusion, then resumed — the south vent’s last overflow ended just before 6 a.m. on October 1, and the north vent’s just after.
In the 24 hours before the October 2 update, HVO located 59 shallow earthquakes across the summit region — the largest a magnitude 3.5 at 7:55 a.m. HST — and tiltmeters recorded about 4.9 microradians of inflation. No overflows or spattering occurred in that period, but “strong glow and flames” continued at both vents, and the intrusion did not reactivate.
Kīlauea remains at Volcano Alert Level WATCH and Aviation Color Code ORANGE. HVO says lava fountaining episode 55 “remains a possibility” during the ongoing summit eruption, which began December 23, 2024, and conditions remain favorable for another fountain event. Intrusive activity could also resume and potentially open a new vent within the caldera.
All current activity is confined to the summit region inside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, an area closed to the public. HVO is coordinating with the National Park Service and Hawaiʻi County Civil Defense on eruptive hazards.
Video: USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (public domain — timelapse assembled by Zark News from public-domain HVO webcam imagery, used with credit to the U.S. Geological Survey). Sources: https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/webcams and the HVO Daily Update, Oct 2, 2026.