December 8, 2025

1 min read

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Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano Absolutely Destroys This Webcam in a Fiery New Video

Hawaii’s Kilauea, one of Earth’s most active volcanoes, sent lava fountains spewing into the air, obliterating a U.S. Geological Survey camera

By Andrea Thompson edited by Claire Cameron

Orange lava and gray rocks and ash spew from the brown and gray ground against a blue sky with white clouds

Lava fountains are seen at both the north and south vents of Kilauea’s summit around 10:00 A.M. local time on December 6, 2025.

USGS photo by M. Zoeller

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Hawaii’s Kilauea—one of Earth’s most active volcanoes—is bringing the drama.

On December 6 lava fountains in the Halema‘uma‘u crater at the shield volcano’s summit spewed more than 1,000 feet into the air, sending molten rock, boulders and ash hurtling into one of the U.S. Geological Survey’s webcams, taking it completely offline.

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The volcano is going through a long, intermittent eruption that began on December 23, 2024. Kilauea, located on the southeastern flank of Mauna Loa on the island of Hawai‘i, has blown dozens of times since the 1950s. In fact, it erupted practically uninterrupted from 1983 to 2018 along its East Rift Zone—only ending when the floor of the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater collapsed, draining the lava lake at the volcano’s summit. The lava poured through residential neighborhoods, destroying hundreds of homes and other buildings.

A 2019 paper revealed that fissures inside Kilauea caused a relatively small amount of magma to drain from the volcano’s reservoir, ultimately setting off the collapse of the summit caldera.

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Andrea Thompson is senior desk editor for life science at Scientific American, covering the environment, energy and earth sciences. She has been covering these issues for nearly two decades. Prior to joining Scientific American, she was a senior writer covering climate science at Climate Central and a reporter and editor at Live Science, where she primarily covered earth science and the environment. She has moderated panels, including as part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Media Zone, and appeared in radio and television interviews on major networks. She holds a graduate degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University, as well as a B.S. and an M.S. in atmospheric chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Follow Thompson on Bluesky @andreatweather.bsky.social

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