Kilauea volcano, the home of Pele, Hawaii’s volcano goddess, is erupting. The U.S. Geological Survey announced that the volcano started its eruption on Wednesday, just hours after an eruption watch was issued.
According to CBS News, The USGS said the eruption was noticed just before 4:45 a.m. local time on Wednesday when the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory “detected glow in Kīlauea summit webcam images.” Those images showed that the eruption started within the volcano’s Halema’uma’u crater.
“Webcam imagery shows fissures at the base of Halema’uma’u crater generating lava flows on the surface of the crater floor,” the agency said.
Live video footage of the eruption shows lava flowing through the crater and with large bursts bubbling up. A live stream of the volcano from the USGS caught the dramatic beginning of the eruption, which started before dawn.
The video shows bright lava break through the surface of the crater, fountaining into the air accompanied by clouds of ash. Kilauea has several erupted several times in recent years.
The last eruption began the afternoon of Jan. 5 and didn’t pause until March 7. Prior to that, the volcano had intermittent eruptions from September 2021 through March 2022, according to the USGS.
The worst eruption stemming from this volcano was the Pu’u’ō’ō’ Eruption, which lasted 35 years – from 1983 to 2018. It ended when the crater floor and lava lake of Pu’u’ō’ō’, a cone on the eastern zone of the volcano, “catastrophically collapsed.”
