Honolulu, Hawaii – The Kilauea volcano on the big island of Hawaii has erupted, the U.S. Geological Survey said, about an hour before an earthquake affected the area. The eruption began late Sunday inside Halema’uma’u Crater, which is located within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
A magnitude 4.4 earthquake affected about an hour after the volcano began to erupt.
At 1 a.m., USGS officials told CBS affiliate KGMB-TV that lava fountains were reportedly firing about 50 meters into the sky and feeding a growing lake of lava inside the crater it used to contain. water.
USGS
In addition to changing the volcano alert level, the U.S. Geological Survey also changed the color of the aviation code to “red,” a warning for aviators to avoid the area, the station reported.
Photos of the eruption that were shared instead of verified social media from the national park around 10pm showed a bright orange glow with thick smoke rising into the sky.
USGS Summit / KGMB-TV webcam
David Phillips, a spokesman for the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said the agency was monitoring the situation.
“We will send new notifications about Kilauea and other Hawaiian volcanoes as we observe changes,” he said.
The USGS said it received more than 500 complaints from people who felt the quake, but that no major damage to buildings or structures was expected.
The Honolulu National Meteorological Service issued a warning to warn of ash falling from the volcano. Excessive exposure to ash is an eye and respiratory irritant, he said. The agency later said the eruption was relaxing and that a “low-level cloud of steam” persisted in the area.
Kilauea erupted in 2018, destroying more than 700 homes and throwing enough lava to fill 320,000 Olympic-sized pools. An area more than half the size of Manhattan was buried in up to 24 feet of now hardened lava. The lava flowed over four months.