Present Lava fountains covering the crankcase surface and spewing clouds of volcanic gases
AP
El Kilauea, one of the most active volcanoes on the planet erupted on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Officials from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) confirmed on Wednesday the beginning of a erupcin in the crter Halemaumau, on top of the volcano.
Images taken by a webcam showed lava fountains covering the surface of the crater and spewing clouds of volcanic gases. In the same area a large lava lake previously formed on several occasions.
The eruption occurred in an area where there are no homes and is completely contained in the Volcanoes National Park.
“All signs indicate to stay inside the crankcase”said Ken Hon, the USGS scientist in charge of the Hawaii Volcano Observatory. “We do not see any indication that the lava is moving towards the bottom of the eastern part of the rift, where people live. Currently, all activity is taking place inside the park,” he added.
The volcano alert was raised to “warning” and the code for aviation changed to red.
Earlier in the day, officials said they detected a increased seismic activity and floor elevation, so alert levels increased.
Kilauea registered a major eruption in 2018 that destroyed more than 700 homes and displaced thousands of people. Until then, the volcano had been slowly erupting for decades, mostly away from densely populated residential areas.
The same area that erupted on Wednesday was also active between last December and May.
Before the great eruption of 2018, Kilauea had been erupting since 1983 and lava flows occasionally covered farms and rural homes. During that time, the lava sometimes reached the ocean, causing drastic interactions with the water.
For four months In 2018, the Kilauea spewed enough lava to fill 320,000 Olympic pools, burying an area more than half the size of Manhattan in up to 24 meters (80 feet) of now-hardened lava. The molten rock reduced landmarks, streets, and neighborhoods to a vast field of blackened rocks and volcanic fragments.
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