Early on Monday, Kīlauea, Hawaii’s second-largest volcano, began a slow-bubbling eruption through four scratch-like fissures about 2.5 miles southwest of its caldera.
NEW ⚡🇺🇸🌋 – Kilauea volcano eruption this morning on the Island of Hawai’i. This is the first eruption in this region since 1974 pic.twitter.com/ybY6lnLbcf
— VAL THOR (@CMDRVALTHOR) June 4, 2024
Fortunately, this eruption posed no threat to communities on the Big Island of Hawaii. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) declared the eruption paused just before 3 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time, emphasizing that the situation remains dynamic and could change rapidly.
Seismic activity near the eruption decreased significantly, and visible lava emission ceased approximately 12 hours after the eruption began.
The National Park Service, responsible for Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park where Kīlauea is located, stated that nighttime glow or lava viewing would likely not be visible at this time.
Earlier in the afternoon, only one of the fissures, slightly over half a mile long, remained active.
The USGS and the Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency downgraded the Big Island’s volcano alert level from warning to watch, indicating an ongoing eruption with limited hazards.
Although the eruption occurred within a zone around the caldera that has been closed since 2008 due to safety concerns related to sulfur dioxide emissions, officials did not anticipate any threats to Big Island communities.
Federal geologists drew a comparison to a similar eruption in the same location back in December 1974, which lasted six hours and exhibited fissures with the same orientation