HONOLULU — Hawaii’s Kilauea began erupting inside its summit crater Thursday, the US Geological Survey said, less than a month after the volcano and its neighbor Mauna Loa stopped spewing lava.
The Hawaii Volcano Observatory detected a glow in the webcam images indicating that Kilauea had begun to erupt inside the Halemaumau crater in the volcano’s summit caldera, the agency said.
Kilauea’s summit is within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and away from residential communities.
Kilauea is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. It last erupted for 16 months starting in September 2021. For about two weeks starting on November 27, Hawaii had two volcanoes spewing lava next to each other when Mauna Loa erupted for the first time in 38 years. .
Both volcanoes stopped erupting at about the same time.
Early Thursday, the US Geological Survey raised the alert level for Kilauea due to signs that magma was moving below the surface of the summit, an indication that the volcano could erupt.
Credit: Palisades Tahoe