Kilauea volcano eruption resumes on Hawaii’s Big Island, alert elevated from watch to warning
Written by ABC AUDIO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on January 6, 2023
(NEW YORK) — The Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island has started erupting again.
The U.S. Geological Survey said Thursday night that its Hawaiian Volcano Observatory “detected glow” in webcam images of the Kilauea summit, “indicating that the eruption has resumed within Halemaʻumaʻu crater in Kīlauea’s summit caldera, within Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.”
The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has elevated the volcano alert from “watch” to “warning.”
“The opening phases of eruptions are dynamic. Webcam imagery shows fissures at the base of Halemaʻumaʻu crater generating lava flows on the surface of the crater floor,” the USGS said. “The activity is confined to Halemaʻumaʻu and the hazards will be reassessed as the eruption progresses.”
The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said lava is confined to the crater and that no communities are threatened.
Just last month, both Kilauea, one of the most active volcanos in the world, and Mauna Loa, the largest volcano in the world, ignited the landscape of Hawaii’s Big Island.
Officials told ABC News at the time that it was a sign that Pele, the Polynesian goddess of fire, is blessing the land.
Locals and tourists alike flocked to the best spots to take in the views of the red-hot lava slowly bubbling from the crater of the volcanoes at the time.
The double eruption was so unique because the volcanoes are fed by different magma or “plumbing” systems, and neither eruption is sparked by the other, Jessica Ferracane, public affairs specialist for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, told ABC News at the time.
Mauna Loa had not erupted since 1984.
A lake of lava has been forming inside the summit crater of Kilauea since September 2021, and Kilauea has been erupting consistently ever since, according to Ferracane. But in 2018, about 700 homes were destroyed during a particularly devastating eruption at Kilauea, which caused the entire summit to collapse into a crater quadruple its size and closed the park for 134 days, Ferracane said.
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