The world’s most active volcano is at it again.
Since the long, devastatingly beautiful summer eruption of 2018, Kilauea has been relatively quiet. Tourists who traveled to the Big Island could see that the volcano’s summit crater, Halemaumau, had about doubled in size, and they could see other signs of the eruption’s aftermath, like cracks in the roads and hardened lava fields.
But as for active lava, there was none to be found the last two years, with surface-level activity at a near standstill for the first time since the mid-1980s.
Video of the eruption from Jaggar Overlook at about 11:30 PM HST. pic.twitter.com/7CgZJMNn1R
— USGS Volcanoes? (@USGSVolcanoes) December 21, 2020
Flash forward to last night, when Kilauea appeared to wake from its slumber.
Signs had been bubbling for a couple weeks now. Earlier in December, earthquakes began signaling increased activity under the summit’s surface, and just last week new magma was detected. Late Sunday night local time, earthquakes preceded an eruption of lava inside Halemaumau Crater.
As of Sunday night, the eruption was completely contained within Halemaumau Crater, with fountains reaching a max height of 160 feet.
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