Title:

The 2018 eruption and caldera collapse at Kilauea volcano

Abstract:

The 2018 eruption of Kilauea volcano (Hawai‘i) was its most impactful in centuries, involving an outpouring of more than one cubic kilometer of basalt, a magnitude 7 flank earthquake, and the volcano’s largest summit collapse since at least the nineteenth century. Observations have yielded unprecedented insights into basaltic caldera collapses, the dynamics of large caldera-rift eruptions, the geometry of a shallow magma storage-transport system and its interaction with rift zone tectonics, mechanisms of basaltic tephra-producing explosions, and the dynamics of fissure eruptions and high-volume lava flows. I will summarize eruptive activity and describe how magma flow to a low-elevation vent triggered quasi-periodic step-like collapse of the summit caldera, which pressurized the magma system and sustained the eruption. I will also show evidence that Kilauea’s magmatic-tectonic system is tightly interconnected over tens of kilometers, and that magma is stored in diverse locations, volumes, and compositions beneath the volcano’s summit and East Rift Zone. I will also discuss parallels with other basaltic caldera-forming eruptions, including at Miyakejima. Finally I will highlight some outstanding questions which may motivate new studies into this remarkable eruption.