It’s baaack.

For years, I listened to my geology and geophysics colleagues talking about their trips to study Puʻu ʻŌʻō lava flowing from Kīlauea and forming a massive lava lake at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO). From 1983 to 2018, this volcano rumbled and oozed and became a sweetheart of the geology community.

In 2018, this previously gentle beast replumbed itself. The lava lake drained away. Vents opened on the volcano’s flanks, and several neighborhoods were consumed during the Lower Puna eruption. By 2019, the lava lake had evolved into a water lake for the first time in 200 years, and by December 1, the lake was approximately 49 meters deep.

Until Sunday.

At 9:30 pm, the HVO detected a glow within the summit crater. An hour later, a magnitude 4.4 earthquake with a depth of six kilometers or four miles shook the area. By the morning of December 21, the crater lake was boiled away, and a lava lake was beginning to fill the crater. This isn’t an explosive eruption; the lava at Kīlauea is runny, low viscosity stuff. Instead of blasting debris into the upper atmosphere, folks are watching 25-meter high lava fountains dance as the crater’s lava levels rise several meters an hour.

While this eruption doesn’t seem to be a major risk to air traffic or threatening potential destruction of surrounding communities at this time, this is an active volcano, and a threat level of orange has been declared. The eruption is also wreaking havoc on air quality and residents are currently advised to stay inside and avoid the volcanic fog and ash.

As a quick note, while researching this December 21 volcanic excitement, we learned that Italy’s Mt. Etna also had a massive outburst as part of an eruption that started December 13. This falls into the category of “correlation does not imply causation” but can lead to a lava-filled Twitter list.

More Information

USGS eruption notice 

USGS earthquake notice 

USGS Volcano Updates