Kilauea's summit is highly pressurized and behaving unusually, which means closed trails for hikers but no current threat to homes or property.

• Pressure is building under Kilauea's summit after a recent push of magma underground.
• The cones that have been erupting since late 2024 have grown hundreds of feet taller, so it now takes far more pressure to push magma out the same way.
• In late September, shallow magma forced its way into old fractures north of the crater and opened new cracks on the caldera floor.
• All of the activity is still confined to the summit inside the national park, with no sign magma is heading toward the East Rift Zone that devastated Leilani Estates in 2018.
• Earthquakes and rockfall risk have closed the Halemaʻumaʻu trail and part of Byron Ledge, though the rest of the park is open and still offers glow and spatter at night.

Outlook: The next eruption is expected to look very different from the past two years, likely breaking out at a new weak point rather than the old vents.