Following elevated earthquake activity, Kilauea began erupting at about 2:30 a.m. This new eruption is happening at Halema’uma’u crater, which is located at the summit of Kilauea inside of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. It is not posing a danger to any homes or businesses.
From the early images, it appears that a this is a fissure eruption with fountains of lava spewing from the fissure. It’s difficult to discern the actual height and scale of the fountains from a distant view. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) will likely provide an estimate later today. If I had to guess, I would estimate that the fountains you see in the photo above are reaching heights of roughly 30 feet and possible more. You can check for Kilauea updates from the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
This type of eruption is usually very dramatic, especially in the beginning of the new volcano activity. The following screenshot was taken from the same vantage point roughly 42 minutes from the photo at the top. You can see how much lava covered the crater floor in a short period of time.
Within a few hours of the eruption, the livestream webcam was moved to a different location and wow, oh, wow! What an incredible sight as you can see from the following screenshot!
You can watch the livestream of this eruption on the USGS’ YouTube channel. If at all possible, try to check in on the livestream around dawn and/or dusk when the views are best. Sometimes the livestream gets interrupted and that has happened this morning. When the livestream gets restarted, we believe this will be the link.
Here’s another webcam view of Halema’uma’u. It’s neat to see how the lava is illuminating the crater wall in the middle of the dark night.
What an exciting 24 hours it’s been for Hawaii. Yesterday, Oahu’s North Shore had the monster waves rolling in for The Eddie surfing competition. Now, Kilauea is erupting. Wow!
Sheila Beal
