One of the world’s largest lava lakes at a Hawaiian volcano has overflowed into its crater days after its biggest spill in 10 years.
Scientists from the US Geological Survey (USGS) monitoring the Kilauea volcano reported lava falling on to the floor of the Halemaumau crater.
Striking footage from the USGS shows molten lava bubbling over earlier this week.
Researchers have been recording a high lava lake level following days of bubbling and spattering.
The lava lake at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano overflowed its vent rim around midnight on April 21 with additional overflows April 22–23. Since then, the lava lake level has dropped several yards below the vent rim. https://t.co/7ghU3mS2nt pic.twitter.com/Ph41DtMukl
— USGS Volcanoes🌋 (@USGSVolcanoes) April 24, 2018
It follows Monday’s overspill, which saw the largest overflow at the Kilauea summit vent in 10 years. The lake managed to reach a height just 20ft (6m) below the rim on Saturday.
The area surrounding the volcano has been closed to the public due to the hazard.
The crater floor at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō has been slowly uplifting for several weeks. This gif of thermal images shows changes between April 20 and April 24. https://t.co/Sr3DxVkLIe pic.twitter.com/19V3BMPyYI
— USGS Volcanoes🌋 (@USGSVolcanoes) April 25, 2018
After erupting in 1982, the volcano was quiet for 25 years until the end of 2007.
An earthquake which hit the volcano’s summit in March 2008 produced a new crater, which was associated with a series of explosions that year.
The lake levels have been rising since 2012 and fluctuated last year, thought to be a result of magma (molten rock) rising and falling.
