Watch a 16-foot high ‘dome fountain’ of lava spew from Hawaii’s erupting volcano
The ongoing eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano has entered a new phase that is both beautiful and terrifying.
After two weeks of spewing tons of lava, the erupting vent has taken the form of a “dome fountain,” which resembles a red-hot balloon floating atop a lake of lava.
“Dome fountains can occur when lava rapidly emerges from a constricted vent or fissure onto the surface or, as in this case, beneath the surface of a lava lake. ... The result is a rolling upwelling of lava,” the U.S. Geological Survey wrote in a Jan. 5 Facebook post.
“The feature resembles, in part, a bubbling water fountain. The height of the dome fountain was estimated to be about 5 m (16 ft) with an estimated width of 10 m (33 ft).”
On Jan. 7, experts said they suspected the fountain is being fed by at least two sources.
The volcano, located inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, has been erupting for two weeks and has maintained a steady flow of lava since Dec. 26, the USGS says. It’s currently producing about 100,000 gallons of lava per minute, experts say.
Enough molten magma has spewed out to create an 70-acre lava lake that is about 630 feet deep, officials say. The 35 million cubic yards of lava remains within the walls of the volcano’s Halemaumau crater. (A 7-acre island formed in the lake, and has been seen drifting around, the USGS reports.)
The flow of lava has been such that the vent is now drowning, which forces the lava to emerge from “roofed vertical channels,” the USGS reports. The “vigorous” dome fountain was first recorded on Jan. 2, the USGS says in its video.
Dome fountains have been observed during eruptions at multiple volcanoes in Hawaii, including a rare ”symmetrical dome fountain” that reached 65 feet in height at Kilauea Volcano in 1969, according to a USGS tweet.
This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 6:59 PM with the headline "Watch a 16-foot high ‘dome fountain’ of lava spew from Hawaii’s erupting volcano."