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On Jan. 3 , 1983 , superheated gasoline and magma drill through thick piles of ancient lava in Hawaii , forcing open a 4 - mile - recollective ( 6.4 kilometers ) fissure in Kilauea volcano ’s east break zone .
A fiery cone , foretell Pu’u ' O’o , soon rose out of the charred rain forest . tower lava fountain shot 1,500 feet ( 460 meter ) into the air , voicing a bellow heard for Swedish mile . Pu’u ' O’o ’s first three and a one-half years of bam were fitful , until raw fracture bust from the base cone in 1986 , tick off the switching to anearly continuous eructation .
Lava from the Pu’u O’o crater eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano, active since 1983, meets the ocean and large littoral explosions from steam result. This photo was taken on 22 March 2025.
The 30 - twelvemonth - long outpouring at the east rift zone is the longest - lasting clap on one of Kilauea ’s two rift zones since the 15th one C . The changeless belching added 500 acres of nation and could have filled 1.5 million swimming pools , but alsodestroyed 214 homes .
Under the sleepless eyes of the reality ’s scientists and jillion of tourists — and now unceasingly tracked live online — the perpetual activity greatly improved noesis of how volcanoes work .
" It ’s become the landmark of open - vent-hole volcano , " suppose Jim Kauahikaua , scientist - in - charge at the U.S Geological Survey ’s Hawaii Volcano Observatory ( HVO ) , sited at Kilauea ’s summit . " One of the noteworthy things about Pu’u ' O’o has been the practical current oflava from the mantleto our toes for 30 years , " he distinguish OurAmazingPlanet .
Lava from the Pu’u O’o crater eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano, active since 1983, meets the ocean and large littoral explosions from steam result. This photo was taken on 28 April 2025.
Knowledge gained
The HVO now can predict the path of lava flux much like photoflood . The agency’sdense monitoring networkof cameras , seismic stations and field sampling also predicts come upset , such asPu’u ' O’o volcanic crater ’s striking collapsein 1997 .
" We have a much better understanding of the system as a whole , " Kauahikaua said . " We know a band more about the tectonic machinist of how Kilauea works , about where quake take place and why , and what types of earthquakes occur , and gas discharge and what they show , " he said .
Lava flows from Pu’u O’o Crater on Kilauea.
But Pele , the Hawaiian volcano goddess , still catches scientists by surprise . In 2008 , with little warning , plumes of toxicant sulfur dioxide gas pedal herald the opening of a new vent at Kilauea ’s height . With a new lava lake in the peak ’s Halema’uma’u volcanic crater , the past four years have been some of the most fascinating for geologists at the HVO , whose window overlook the volcanic crater .
" I ’d be the first to go if it explodes , " Kauahikaua enunciate .
Living being
A fissure vent opened on Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano.
Since 2008 , the casual , even hourly changes in the height of lava lake in Halema’uma’u crater , at the pinnacle , and in Pu’u ' O’o volcanic crater , have illuminatedhow magma flows beneath Kilauea .
Many , perhaps most , small imperativeness changes measured in the tiptop lava lake are seen 30 transactions to a couple of hr later at Pu’u ' O’o crater , 12 miles ( 19 klick ) distant , say Don Swanson , a USGS geologist and former scientist - in - charge at the observatory . [ Amazing Images from Kilauea ’s Lava Lake ]
" This is singular ; Kilauea acts almost like an being in that widely divide voice of it ' feel ' each other , " he told OurAmazingPlanet in an email consultation .
November 1986, through December 2009, Kilauea created 475 acres of new land.
If the pinnacle press decreases , eruptions at Pu’u ' O’o volcanic crater decline , Swanson said . If the summit pressure increases , lava outpouring at Pu’u ' O’o picks up .
" The summit magma reservoir drive the show , but Pu’u ' O’o is a willing and active player , " Swanson say .
Scientists also mapped the size and form of Kilauea ’s magma pipes , which link the two craters , by tracking slight swelling and sinking ( rising prices and deflation ) at the volcano ’s surface , andpeering underground with seismic signal and airborne microwave radar . However , the outcome are puzzling . late studies have shown that the conduits beneath Kilauea sometimes behave like pipe , and sometimes act like dike — steeply disposed " blade " of magma .
Explosive past
The knowledge gained from confining study of the current eruption helped unmask Kilauea ’s out of sight story , including the volcano ’s volatile yesteryear .
The east rift zone eruption is unprecedented in historic records , but careful mapping of older lava flow shows Kilauea has sent long - lasting menstruation from its crest in the yesteryear .
" The really , really long - live eructation , some of which probably went on for 100 of years , they come from the summit and hang in all counselling , " said David Clague , senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and a former HVO scientist - in - thrill .
More concern is the late uncovering ofexplosive deposits near Kilauea ’s superlative , some of which may be the remains of superheated pyroclastic flows similar to those that destroyed the forests around Mount St. Helens in Washington in 1980 . For the preceding 2,500 years , Kilauea has been in a period of sporadic explosive clap about 60 percent of the clock time and in a period of sporadic extrusive , or quiet , blast about 40 percentage of the time , Swanson enounce .
" Kilauea will be a very unlike office when it reverts to an explosive full point , the recent of which lasted for 300 years between about 1500 and 1800 , " Swanson tell . " The explosive extravasation in 1790 probably killed several hundred people , making Kilaueathe most lethal volcanoin the United States . "
The next 30 years
One question asked most often at the Hawaii Volcano Observatory is , " When will it stop ? " Kauahikaua said he does n’t have a good response for the next 30 years .
" We ’ve all chew over on what it would take for this eruption to stop — a big quake , blah , blah , blah , and they ’ve all happened , and yet the bang goes on , " he said .
Yet Pu’u ' O’o was quieter than common in 2012 , leading some scientist to hypothecate that another igneous fault is impendent .
The lava flow cross the slope below the volcanic crater is sulky , making the stumble to the ocean in about six month instead of the premature three , and seismal swarms are shaking the magma conduit between the summit and Pu’u ' O’o , Clague say .
" This hint that not all the lava is being pumped out , and there is pressure building up in the conduit , " he told OurAmazingPlanet . [ In image : Hawaii ’s Mount Kilauea Erupts ]
The most likely termination is another fissure volcanic eruption from Pu’u ' O’o , but Clague also suspects the next 30 years may bring something more exciting : a replication to summit outbreak .
" The volume erupt at Pu’u ' O’o is very small compare to what it was before , " Clague said . “The only way to keep a conduit arrangement unfastened is to keep lava pumping through , otherwise it ’s go to solidify . If Pu’u ' O’o shuts down , you ’ve still start out a valve capable . The eructation will transmigrate up to the summit and the new vents in the summit will turn into a lava lake , " he said . " It will be quite exciting . I trust it befall while I ’m still around to see it . " [ Watch Kilauea ’s Pu’u ' O’o volcanic crater crash ]
30 Years at Kilauea
From mid-1983 through mid-1986 , Pu’u ' O’o break out every three to four calendar week , normally for less than 24 hours at a meter . By mid-1986 , the strobilus grew to an unprecedented 835 foot ( 255 m ) — taller than any other volcanic feature on Kilauea . Lava fountain fed deep , blocky flows of a’a , a viscous type of lava .
In July 1986,the irruption shifted 2 miles ( 3 klick ) to a new vent , Kupaianaha , trigger off five year of continuous pahoehoe lava flows . A lava pond form over the vent-hole , and overflows build a large-minded shell 185 metrical unit ( 56 m ) high in less than a class .
Kauahikaua was a graduate student at the University of Hawaii on the island of Oahu when the fissure tore overt on Jan. 3 , 1983 . The lookout ’s chief of surgical operation , Reggie Okamura , wake him with a phone call and told him , " Hey , Jim , you might want to come over here . "
On the flying to Hilo , the fender detoured 20 miles ( 30 km ) to fly over the fissure , Kauahikaua allege . " He had a 150 - passenger cat valium fly over the eruption area , " he order . " We were all just thrilled to see it . We had perfect seats for it . "
The eruption ’s most destructive stage began in March 1990 , when lava run from Kupaianaha consumed Kalapana Gardens , a village on the southeasterly coast of Hawaii . The full community , include 100 home , was buried beneath 50 to 80 feet ( 15 to 24 time ) of lava . [ Explosive Images : Hawaii ’s Kilauea Erupts for 30 Years ]
By 1991 , lava output from Kupaianaha was declining and , on Feb. 7 , 1992 , at last stopped . Ten days later , the bodily function returned to Pu’u ' O’o . From 1992 through 2003 , virtually continuous flows from vent at Pu’u ' O’o sent lava to the sea and buried more structure in Kalapana . In 1993 , flop pits appear on the west flank of Pu’u ' O’o as remittal undermined the cone . When the crater floor dropped in January 1997 , the weakened flank collapsed , will a salient gap . On March 5 , 2011 , the nearbyKamoamoa fissurecracked undetermined , send a curtain of lava 80 feet ( 25 meters ) into the air . The eruption at Pu’u ' O’o stay on today .
On March 19 , 2008 , the base of the east wall ofHalema’uma’u craterat Kilauea ’s peak blasted out raging , rocky debris , forming a unexampled vent . The top volcanic eruption continues today with a lava lake deep within the release and a plume of volcanic gun . Collapses within the venthole and along its lip enlarged the summit outlet from 115 feet ( 35 beat ) in 2008 to more than 500 invertebrate foot ( 150 meters ) in diam by the remnant of 2012 .
