The volcano Kīlauea in Hawaii on the Big Island (Hawaii) is one of the world’s most active volcanoes. It erupted nearly continuously from 1983 to 2018. Then on December 20, 2020, a new eruption broke out in Halemaʻumaʻu, with the lava boiling off a water lake that had been growing for more than a year and replacing it with a lava lake.
In late July 2019, a water lake appeared on the bottom of Halemaʻumaʻu for the first time in over 200 years, as water from the rebounding water table began entering the crater. Afterward, the crater lake gradually grew in size. On December 1, 2020, the lake was approximately 49 metres (161 ft) deep. Within a month, the water lake would be replaced by a lava lake during a new eruption.
On December 20, 2020, at 9:30 PM local time, an eruption broke out within Halemaʻumaʻu at Kīlauea’s summit caldera. The US Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported that three vents were feeding lava into the bottom of Halemaʻumaʻu Crater, boiling off the water lake that had been growing since summer 2019 and replacing it with a lava lake. According to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, the eruption created a plume that reached 30,000 feet in elevation. The eruption was preceded by earthquake swarms centered at Kīlauea Caldera on November 30, 2020 and December 2, 2020, the second of which was interpreted as a small intrusion of magma. By the following morning, emergency officials reported that the eruption had stabilized and that two of the three vents remained active and continued to fill the floor of Halemaʻumaʻu with lava.] By 7:30 a.m. on December 25, 2020, the lava lake had filled in 176 metres (577 ft) of the crater, and the level of the lake was continuing to rise. On January 8, 2021, the depth of the lava lake had increased to 636 feet (194 m).
That brings us to another volcano, only this one is hidden under Yellowstone National Park, the Yellowstone Caldera, probably the most dangerous geological features on Earth. It last erupted approximately 640,000 years ago. The History Channel takes a look on how it was formed and its potential should it ever erupt.
TMC for ek hornbeck