North vent in Halemaʻumaʻu crater started releasing the molten rock in 32nd such episode since December 2024
Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano resumed erupting on Tuesday, firing lava 330 ft (100 meters) into the sky from its summit crater.
It’s the 32nd episode of the volcano releasing molten rock since December 2024, when its current eruption began. So far, all the lava from this eruption has been contained within the summit crater inside Hawaii Volcanoes national park.
Lava emerged from the north vent in Halemaʻumaʻu crater after midnight. The vent began shooting fountains of lava at 6.35am, the US Geological Survey said. By mid-morning, it was also erupting from the crater’s south vent and a third vent in between.
A lower magma chamber under Halemaʻumaʻu crater is receiving magma directly from the earth’s interior about 5 cubic yards (3.8 cubic meters) per second, said Ken Hon, the scientist-in-charge at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. This blows the chamber up like a balloon and forces magma into an upper chamber. From there, it gets pushed above ground through cracks.
