Lava level and crater geometry data during the 2018 lava lake draining at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii

In May 2018, the onset of new eruptive activity on the lower flank of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi, accompanied the draining of the lava lake at the summit, 40 km upslope. The lava lake draining lasted over seven days, and transitioned into the largest collapse event at the summit of Kīlauea in over 200 years, with the paired flank and summit activity marking a historic episode in the modern record of Kīlauea. We present two important datasets that characterize draining of the Kīlauea summit lava lake in 2018. First, we present high-precision elevation data of the lava lake surface measured by an industrial laser rangefinder. To our knowledge, this is the highest-precision lava lake elevation data ever collected over a sustained period. Second, we present three-dimensional models of the drained crater on three dates during the draining sequence. The models were constructed from oblique airborne thermal images using structure-from-motion processing. These models constrain the crater geometry and can be used for measuring the volume of the lava lake during its draining. This combined dataset may be useful for future research on the 2018 eruption.