■ Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano shot a steam and ash cloud into the atmosphere.
Crowds flock to park after Sunday eruption
HONOLULU — Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano on the Big Island erupted and shot a steam and ash cloud into the atmosphere that lasted about an hour, an official with the National Weather Service said early Monday.
The eruption began late Sunday within Kilauea’s summit crater, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The crater, named Halemaumau, is within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and was home to a longstanding lava lake that was present for years before a 2018 eruption caused it to drain.
Tom Birchard, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Hawaii, said lava interacted with a pool of water that had accumulated inside the crater, leading to a shortlived but fairly vigorous eruption.
When lava interacts with water it can cause explosions.
All the water evaporated out of the lake and a steam cloud shot up about 30,000 feet into the atmosphere, Birchard said.
The water was the first recorded in the summit crater of Kilauea volcano.
In 2019, after a week of questions about a mysterious green patch at the bottom of the volcano’s crater, researchers confirmed the presence of water. The lake had continued to fill since then.
An advisory was issued by the National Weather Service in Honolulu, warning of fallen ash from the volcano. Excessive exposure to ash is an eye and respiratory irritant, it said. The agency later said the eruption was easing and a “low-level steam cloud” was lingering in the area.
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park spokeswoman Jessica Ferracane said that the volcanic activity is a risk to people in the park and that caution is needed.
“It’s pretty spectacular this morning,” she said, “but there are high amounts of hazardous sulfur dioxide gas and particulates and those are billowing out of the crater right now and those present a danger to everyone, especially people with heart or respiratory problems, infants, young children and pregnant women.”
By 1 a.m., USGS officials told Hawaii News Now that there were reported lava fountains shooting about 165 feet into the sky.
A magnitude 4.4 earthquake hit about an hour after the volcano began erupting. The USGS said significant damage to buildings or structures was not expected.