Scientists are closely watching the Kilauea eruption, which stopped pouring lava out of the so-called Thanksgiving Eve Breakout on Monday, but resumed just in time for Christmas.

Jim Kauahikaua, scientist in charge at the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said the lava flow at the breakout point has stopped for brief spells — of a few days — several times over the past year.

Scientists have studied the pauses, which often come with "deflation-inflation" events at Kilauea, but haven't been able to find out why the flows stop and then quickly start up again, he said.

"We've looked," Kauahikaua said, "but we don't understand the relationship."

No lava was seen flowing out of the breakout Wednesday, Hawai'i Civil Defense administrator Quince Mento said, though small wisps of steam were spotted by early afternoon.

But Kauahikaua had said Wednesday that infrared sensors indicated lava could start flowing again at the breakout soon, and the sensors proved accurate. Yesterday, lava resumed flowing through the tube system to the ocean, and several surface lava flows were active.

Kauahikaua said such Kilauea pauses have been become more frequent over the past decade. But again, he stressed, scientists haven't been able to figure out why the flows stop and then re-start.

There is also no indication that the stops and starts signal that the eruption at Kilauea could be coming to an end. The flow pauses, he said, are often seen when the Kilauea summit deflates while undergoing geological changes and then inflates again.

Kauahikaua said the deflation-inflation event this week was an "unusually long one." The past few, he said, "have been more in the order of 12 to 20 hours."

The latest pause lasted about three days.

Not every deflation-inflation event comes with a lava flow pause.

Meanwhile, the Halema'uma'u and Pu'u 'O'o vents continue to emit sulfur dioxide, and a very small amount of mostly rock dust tephra is coming from Halema'uma'u.

The pause in flow this week came as the ongoing eruption of the Kilauea volcano is set to hit its 26th anniversary. The eruption began Jan. 3, 1983, with 1,500-foot lava fountains at Pu'u 'O'o.

From 1992 to 2007, Pu'u 'O'o was the center of activity.

But on Nov. 21, 2007, lava drained from Pu'u 'O'o and surfaced from a new vent more than a mile east. Since then, lava activity has been centered at that site, the Thanksgiving Eve Breakout or TEB vent.

Over the past quarter-century, the Kilauea eruption has destroyed some 190 structures in Puna, including Kalapana Village, and buried almost nine miles of highway.

Big Island volcanologists have said the eruption is the longest in Kilauea's rift zone in — at least — the past eight centuries.

So far, the eruption has enlarged the Big Island by about 570 acres.