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The latest episode of a 400-meter-high lava fountain on a Hawaii volcano erupted Tuesday, prompting the temporary closure of a national park and part of a key highway due to falling pieces of the volcano, including ash.
Kilauea, on Hawaii’s Big Island, has been surprising residents and visitors for more than a year with ongoing eruptions and eruptions that send fountains of lava from the sky periodically.
The fountain that started on Tuesday morning marked the 43rd episode of this eruption since it began in December 2024. The live broadcast showed two fountains of red lava and smoke. It is unclear how long the fountaining will last. Some episodes lasted a few days and some a few hours.
As at other times, the molten rock was contained within the Kilauea volcano within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and did not threaten homes or buildings.
One of the world’s most active volcanoes, the Kilauea volcano erupted in lava flows Tuesday, reaching a height of 400 meters, the US Geological Survey reported. Smoke from the explosion also reached 25,000 meters above sea level, according to the US National Weather Service.
But the volcano’s vents were causing problems for neighboring communities and the highway where volcanic fragments and ash, known as tephra, were falling. The tephra caused a temporary closure of the national park near the summit and partial closure of Highway 11, a key route around the island, on both sides of the park.
Hawaii State officials have also opened a shelter at the state gym for residents and visitors affected by road closures or falling tephra. No people have been using the shelter since it opened, said Tom Callis, a county spokesman.
The US National Weather Service has issued an ash fall warning.
Volcanic tephra can irritate the eyes, skin and respiratory system, according to county officials. Tephra can also clog and cause other problems with water collection systems, which are common in other parts of the Big Island, officials said.
Ash fell so much from the previous hydroelectric project that some communities needed the help of civil defense workers to clean up the ash that covered their homes, Callis said.
Kilauea is one of the most active volcanoes in the world.
A remote camera of the eruption of Hawaii’s Kīlauea volcano captured it being engulfed in a lava fountain and took it offline on Saturday. Kilauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, has been erupting regularly since Dec. 23, 2024.
