MAY 4, 2015
The Kilauea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii has put on a
pyrotechnic display over the past week, including a rockfall that caused a
dramatic fiery explosion of lava and smoke Sunday.
The volcano, one of the most active in the world, lies
within Hawaii Volcanoes National
Park and is easily visited. A park road rings the crater (although part of
it has been closed in recent years because of ongoing volcanic fumes and ashfall)
and a hotel sits on the rim. Over the past week the fiery lava lake that
underlies the crater floor has been more visible than usual, glowing
molten-red.
In an even more dramatic turn, part of the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater wall collapsed Sunday. That sent rock
tumbling into the lava lake at the bottom of the crater, said the U.S.
Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, triggering an “explosion of
spatter and a robust particle-laden plume.”
In addition, fist-size rocks were
flung unto the (fortunately closed) Halemaʻumaʻu visitor overlook.
Get Kilauea updates and photos at the Hawaiian Volcano
Observatory website and see a USGS video
of the explosion (keep watching beyond the text intro), including the
sloshing of the fiery lava lake after the impact
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/multimedia/uploads/multimediaFile-1182.mp4