After weeks of heightened seismic activity, Kīlauea volcano began erupting early Wednesday morning within the Halemaʻumaʻu crater in the summit caldera, U.S. Geological Survey officials said.
The agency's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said the bright flow of lava began around 4:44 a.m., as detected from summit webcam images. HVO said the lava remains far from any populated areas on the Big Island and no infrastructure is threatened.
“We’re not seeing any signs of activity out on the rift zones right now,” said Mike Zoeller, a geologist with the observatory. “There’s no reason to expect this to transition into a rift eruption that would threaten any communities here on the island with lava flows or anything like that.”
Kīlauea last erupted for 61 days from January through early March. It has also been about five years since a major eruption destroyed more than 700 homes.
Officials said that at 8 a.m. Wednesday, about 33 feet of new lava had been added to the crater floor. HVO has found multiple active fountains in the central-eastern portion of the crater. They also reported one vent has opened on the west wall of the caldera.
The largest fountain is consistently about 50 feet high, HVO said, and earlier fountain bursts have reached about 200 feet high.
The activity is currently confined to the crater and not expected to leave Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, according to officials.
Park visitors are urged to stay on marked trails and avoid cliff edges. Officials recommend visiting at night between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. to avoid large crowds. The park is open 24 hours a day.
“Kīlauea overlook was spectacular this morning," park spokesperson Jessica Ferracane said of the vast lava lake. “It was molten red lava. There’s several areas of pretty robust fountaining. It’s just really, really pretty.”
The lava lake, covering the crater floor over lava that remained from previous eruptions, measured at about 371 acres at about 6 a.m. Wednesday, Zoeller said. It measured about 4,300 feet wide.
HVO noted that the opening phases of eruptions are dynamic, and hazards will be reassessed as the eruption progresses.
The volcano's alert level was changed from watch to warning Wednesday morning, and then lowered back to watch Thursday because the rate of lava input declined.
Residents of Pāhala, 20 miles downwind of Kīlauea's summit, reported a very light dusting of gritty fine ash and “Pele's hair" — glass particles that form when lava erupts from a fissure and rapidly cools — named for the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes, the observatory said.
Kīlauea, Hawaiʻi's second largest volcano, erupted from September 2021 until last December. For about two weeks in December, Hawaiʻi’s biggest volcano, Maunaloa, also was erupting.
After a short pause, Kīlauea began erupting again in January. That eruption lasted for 61 days, ending in March.
A much larger Kīlauea eruption in 2018 destroyed homes and other structures, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
Before the major 2018 eruption, Kīlauea had been erupting since 1983, and streams of lava occasionally covered farms and homes. During that time, the lava sometimes reached the ocean, causing dramatic interactions with the water.
LIVE: Watch Kīlauea's eruption in Halemaʻumaʻu crater from the northwest rim of the caldera:
This article will update as more information is released. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
