Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupts, rattling the area with earthquakes

Honolulu, Hawaii – The Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island has erupted, the US Geological Survey said about an hour before an earthquake hit the area. The eruption began late Sunday in Halema’uma’u Crater, which is located in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

A magnitude 4.4 earthquake on the magnitude of about an hour after the volcano started erupting.

At 1 am, USGS officials told CBS-affiliated KGMB-TV that there were reports of lava fountains shooting about 50 meters into the air and feeding a growing lava lake in the crater that used to hold water.

In addition to changing the volcano warning level, the US Geological Survey also changed the color of the aviation code to “red” – a warning to aviators to avoid the area, the station reported.

Photos of the eruption shared around 10pm on verified social media accounts for the national park showed a bright orange glow with thick smoke rising into the sky.

David Phillips, a spokesman for the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said the agency was monitoring the situation.

“We will send further reports about Kilauea and other Hawaiian volcanoes as we observe changes,” he said.

The USGS said it received more than 500 reports from people feeling the earthquake, but no significant damage to buildings or structures was expected.

An advisory was issued by the National Weather Service in Honolulu, warning of fallen ash from the volcano. Overexposure to ash is irritating to the eyes and respiratory system, he said. The agency later said the eruption was diminishing and that there was a “low cloud of steam” in the area.

Kilauea erupted in 2018, destroying more than 700 homes and spewing enough lava to fill 320,000 Olympic swimming pools. An area more than half the size of Manhattan was buried in 24 meters of now hardened lava. The lava flowed over the course of four months.