Post Audit of Simulated Groundwater Flow to a Short-Lived (2019 to 2020) Crater Lake at Kīlauea Volcano.

About 14.5 months after the 2018 eruption and summit collapse of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai'i, liquid water started accumulating in the deepened summit crater, forming a lake that attained 51 m depth before rapidly boiling off on December 20, 2020, when an eruption from the crater wall poured lava into the lake. Modeling the growth of the crater lake at Kīlauea summit is important for assessing the potential for explosive volcanism.

Modeling Groundwater Inflow to the New Crater Lake at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai'i.

During the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai'i, scientists relied heavily on a conceptual model of explosive eruptions triggered when lava-lake levels drop below the water table. Numerical modeling of multiphase groundwater flow and heat transport revealed that, contrary to expectations, liquid water inflow to the drained magma conduit would likely be delayed by months to years, owing to the inability of liquid water to transit a zone of very hot rock. The summit of Kīlauea subsequently experienced an ∼2-month period of consistent repeated collapses, and the crater now extends below the equilibrium position of the water table.

Diffuse fluid flux through orogenic belts: implications for the world ocean.

Fifty years ago a classic paper by W. W. Rubey [(1951) Geol.