Amidst all Hawaii’s natural beauty, it’s easy to forget there’s also an element of danger. The active Kilauea volcano that sits on Hawaii’s Big Island erupted on Sunday around 9:30 PM for about an hour and was followed by a 4.4-magnitude earthquake.
View from the western rim of Kīlauea Caldera. Lava is erupting from a fissure in the NW wall of Halemaʻumaʻu crater and cascading into the deepest part of the crater, which had been occupied by a water lake (now replaced with a growing lava lake). pic.twitter.com/VKIFA1Npr0
— USGS Volcanoes🌋 (@USGSVolcanoes) December 21, 2020
The eruption was caused by new lava flow that interacted with a pool of water inside the Halema’uma’u crater. Water evaporated out of the lake, and a steam cloud rose to 30,000 feet.
