HONOLULU — On Hawaii’s Main Island, one of the world’s greatest active volcanoes has begun erupting.
The United States Geological Department reported on Wednesday that a lava outburst had started inside the Halemaumau crater, just at the top of the Kilauea volcano.
Lava fountains surrounded the crater’s bottom, while towering masses of volcano gas soared into the sky, according to camera footage. All across the volcano’s upwelling history, the same region has been inhabited by a huge lava reservoir.
The eruptions are fully restricted inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Reserve so it’s nowhere near the region where people live.
Ken Hon, the USGS geologist in command of the Hawaii Volcanic Observatory, stated, “All clues suggest that it should remain inside the crater. “There are no signs that molten lava is flowing down the bottom portions of the east rift valley, where folks reside. All of the action is now taking place inside the park.”
The warning level for the volcano eruption has increased. The aviation signal was switched to red as a result of the “alert.”
Authorities stated early Wednesday that greater seismic behavior plus soil expansion had already been observed, and also the alarm thresholds had been upgraded immediately.
During 2018, Kilauea experienced a catastrophic outburst that devastated over 700 houses and evacuated thousands of people.
The Kilauea volcano was steadily spewing lava for years before that, although not in highly inhabited housing areas.
Kilauea has been erupting since 1983, as well as rivers of lava that have sometimes buried remote farmland and houses preceding the big 2018 volcanic eruption. Throughout that period, lava occasionally entered the ocean, resulting in spectacular water reactions.
Kilauea Volcano erupted sufficient lava to cover 320,000 Olympic-sized public pools during the period of 4 months in 2018, covering a land well over 50 percent of Manhattan under eighty feet of hardened lava. Monuments, roads, and communities were transformed to wide plains of scorched rocks and volcanic fragments by the molten lava.
Its summit lava reservoir ceased erupting just after the 2018 outburst, then started to replenish with groundwater for the 1st time throughout documented history, prompting worries about the likelihood of a catastrophic reaction involving lava with groundwater.
The very same section of this Kilauea volcano which exploded on Wednesday did so last December and it continued till May.
