December 7, 2022, 7:52 AM HST
![Mauna Loa eruption Day 10: Information lagging behind thanks to inclement weather Tuesday | Big Island Now Mauna Loa eruption Day 10: Information lagging behind thanks to inclement weather Tuesday | Big Island Now](https://cdn.bigislandnow.com/file/bigislandnow/2022/12/Mauna-Loa-eruption-December-5-3-1024x681.jpg)
Information about the ongoing eruption of Mauna Loa is lagging behind today because no teams from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory were able to observe the lava flow from fissure 3 later in the day thanks to inclement weather that was obscuring views and preventing fieldwork.
The eruption continues, with fissure 3 — the only active fissure — generating a lava flow traveling north toward Daniel K. Inouye Highway, or Saddle Road.
Hawai‘i County Civil Defense reported at 7 a.m. today that the flow front is 1.8 miles from Saddle Road. A Mauna Loa eruption media briefing is scheduled this morning. Watch Big Island Now for updated information following that press conference.
There is no active lava within Moku’āweoweo caldera nor the Southwest Rift Zone. No eruptive activity is expected outside the Northeast Rift Zone. No communities are currently at risk and Daniel K. Inouye Highway remains open in both directions.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the flow has reached relatively flat ground and slowed down considerably at the front, which was advancing at an average of 68 feet per hour early Tuesday morning, about twice the rate from the past few days.
Sulfur dioxide emission rates of approximately 120,000 tonnes per day (t/d) were measured Dec. 4 and remain elevated Tuesday. Pele’s hair, strands of volcanic glass, fragments are being wafted great distances and have been reported as far as Honoka‘a.
Tremor, a signal associated with subsurface fluid movement, continues beneath fissure 3, indicating magma is still being supplied. Activity is likely to continue as long as the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory sees this signal.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)