Volcano erupts in Hawaii

The Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big island erupted and shot a steam cloud into the atmosphere that lasted an hour. The eruption began on Dec 20, 2020 within Halema’uma’u crater. The volcano is within Hawaii Volcano National Park. A new lava flow interacted with a pool of water inside the crater and that led to a short-lived but fairly vigorous eruption. All the water evaporated out of the lake and a steam cloud shot up about 30,000 feet. An advisory was issued by the National Weather Service in Honolulu, warning of fallen ash from the volcano. Excessive exposure to ash is an eye and respiratory irritant. The agency later said the eruption was easing and “low-level steam cloud” was lingering in the area. There were reported lava fountains shooting about 165 feet into the sky. The agency was monitoring the situation. A magnitude 4.4 earthquake hit about an hour after the volcano began erupting. But significant damage to buildings or structures was not expected. Kilauea erupted in 2018, destroying more than 700 homes and spewing lava. An area more than half the size of Manhattan was buried in up to 80 feet of now-hardened lava. The lava flowed over the course of four months.