USGS raises alert level as Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupts again

Kilauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, has begun erupting again, according to the US Geological Survey.

At around 12:30 a.m. local time, lava began erupting from the summit of the famous volcano in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island, prompting the USGS to raise the alert level to red.

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A red warning means that a volcanic eruption is imminent, underway or suspected and that potentially hazardous activities may occur on the ground and in the air.

According to the USGS, the eruption occurred about a mile south of the Kīlauea caldera and north of the Koa’e fault system and Hilina Pali Road, within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park but in a secluded, rugged area.

The open fissure is more than a mile long, a USGS spokesman told ABC News. The lava has varied in height and force, with some eruptions reaching up to 65 feet high, the spokesman said. Gas has also been emitted from the fissure, the spokesman noted, and the last time there was an eruption of this nature was in 1974.

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This outbreak could last from a few hours to a few days, the spokesman said.

A Pelé hair – a volcanic glass formation made of cooled lava stretched into thin strands – has not yet been observed by the authorities at the site.

According to the USGS, authorities are closely monitoring the volcano for signs of increasing or decreasing activity.

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Seismic activity and ground deformation beneath the East Rift Zone and Southwest Rift Zone remain low, the agency said, adding that current volcanic activity is limited to the summit region.

Previous eruptions of Kilauea have proven destructive. A powerful lava flow destroyed more than 600 buildings on its way from Kilauea’s summit to the sea in 2018.

A mechanism similar to a “stomp rocket toy” contributed to the severity of this year’s lava flow and could influence future eruptions in a similar way, according to a paper published last week in Nature Geosciences.

The repeated outbreaks since 2018 have not been as severe.

USGS raises alert as Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupts again Originally published on abcnews.go.com