Kilauea, Hawaii’s most active volcano, erupted for the second time in three months on Sunday afternoon, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, which said there was no immediate danger to residents.
The observatory raised alert levels for Kilauea to a warning from a watch just under an hour before the eruption began.
Livestreamed footage showed fissures at the base of the volcano’s main crater, Halemaʻumaʻu, generating lava flows on its surface floor.
Kilauea, in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on Hawaii’s Big Island, last erupted in June, and the observatory had been closely monitoring it for another possible eruption since August.
Increasingly frequent earthquakes, swelling of ground during the past few weeks and pools of magma flowing upward over the past 24 hours were all signs of an imminent eruption, according to the observatory.
Persons:
David Phillips
Organizations:
United States Geological Survey
Locations:
Hawaii