Hawaii’s Kīlauea volcano erupts, shooting lava 1,300 feet into the air

Over nine hours, Kīlauea released 16 million cubic yards of lava and sent a cloud of ash beyond 30,000 feet

By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron

Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii is seen mideruption, with two large plumes of lava jetting into the sky — USGS

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The Kīlauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island erupted on Tuesday in a nine-hour spectacular in which it shot fountains of lava some 1,300 feet into the air, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The eruption generated “significant heat and ash,” USGS said, with some six inches of “tephra”—bits of volcanic material, ranging from glasslike particles to rocks and ash—accumulating on a nearby golf course.

Some glassy material, called “Pele’s hair” for its strandlike structure, traveled as far as Hilo, USGS said. Hilo is some 30 miles away by car. Over the course of the eruption on Tuesday, Kīlauea released an estimated 16 million cubic yards of lava and sent up an ash plume that reached beyond 30,000 feet.

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Kīlauea has been erupting regularly since December 2024; Tuesday’s fiery display was the 43rd “eruptive episode” since then.

Live thermal image of Halemaʻumaʻu from the west rim of the summit caldera — A GIF of a thermal image of Halemaʻumaʻu from the west rim of the summit caldera.
USGS

Kīlauea is a shield volcano, which means it is flatter and shorter than the classic conical peak of a composite volcano. But what such volcanoes lack in height, they make up for in size—much wider than they are high, shield volcanoes are the largest volcanoes on Earth. These volcanoes often produce slow-moving lava flows. Kīlauea is among the planet’s most active volcanoes and has been erupting for as long as humans have been around to document it.

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