SEA OF TROUBLE AS KILAUEA BURNS WITH NEW POWER

A SEA of lava is flowing towards the ocean in a spectacular demonstration of the power of nature in rural Hawaii as Kilauea continues to erupt.

Since a first fissure opened on May 3, lava has mostly been spattering up and collecting at the edges of the cracks in the ground.

On Saturday afternoon, the lava changed dramatically with one fissure ramping up and sending a flow across a road, destroying four more homes.

The change is attributed to new magma mixing with 1955era magma in the ground, creating hotter and more fluid flows, scientists said. “There’s much more stuff coming out of the ground and it’s going to produce flows that move further away,” said Wendy Stovall, a US Geological Survey volcanologist.

By yesterday morning, two of 22 fissures had merged, creating a wide flow advancing at rates of up to 274m per hour.

Aerial footage showed lava fountaining 100m high at one of the fissures.

Picture: EPA/BRUCE OMORI/PARADISE HELICOPTERS Lava from Kilauea volcano burns properties and threatens others as the ongoing eruption in Hawaii worsened over the weekend and (inset) the high-energy eruption in action.