Kīlauea Eruption Sends Lava Fountains 500 Feet High at Halemaʻumaʻu
Hawaii’s Kīlauea Volcano enters new eruptive phase, with massive lava fountains and a plume rising 10,000 feet above the summit crater.
Trenton, September 19 EST: Kīlauea blew before dawn today, sending fire skyward from the summit. At 3:11 a.m. HST, vents inside Halemaʻumaʻu Crater ripped open. By sunrise, fountains of lava were shooting almost 500 feet high, and a thick gray plume had already climbed to 10,000 feet.
The USGS called it Episode 33 in the ongoing eruption series. Cold number, hot morning. The roar and glow inside the caldera said more than any bulletin could.
A Restless Mountain
The Big Island knows this drill. Kīlauea never goes quiet for long. When activity is locked inside the summit crater, as it is now, most of the island keeps moving. No homes are threatened, no roads cut off. The alert level sits at WATCH and the aviation code is Orange. Those are caution flags, not evacuation orders.
It is not 2018. Back then, lava tore across subdivisions on the East Rift Zone, destroying more than 700 houses. Today’s eruption is loud, bright, but so far boxed in.
First Light Over The Caldera
At dawn, crowds gathered at the overlook along Crater Rim Drive. Some locals, some tourists who got lucky with timing. Phones out, jackets pulled tight against the chill, all watching the north vent hammering the air with molten rock. Lava pooled on the crater floor, glowing red through the haze.
“Biggest jets are off the north wall,” a ranger muttered while scanning with binoculars. He was not wrong. Each burst looked taller than a high-rise.
Hazards Do Not End At The Rim
The lava itself is not the main worry right now. It is the gas. Every eruption at Kīlauea pushes sulfur dioxide into the sky. Downwind, that turns into vog, volcanic smog, which can drift into neighborhoods, sting the throat, burn the eyes, and make breathing hard.
Air crews are watching too. The plume does not appear to carry much ash yet, but if it does, it can shred an airplane engine in minutes. That is why the aviation code is locked at Orange.
Tourists Flood The Park
The show is impossible to resist. Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park always sees a surge the moment lava breaks the surface. Park officials are glad for the attention, but the warnings came quick this morning: stay behind barriers, do not get clever, do not hike in. Halemaʻumaʻu is unstable, and vents can open in silence right underfoot.
People leaned on guardrails anyway, snapping photos, kids on shoulders. That is Kīlauea, dangerous and magnetic at once.
What No One Knows
How long will it last? Scientists will not commit. It could fizzle by tomorrow, it could keep rumbling into next month. Seismic tremors, gas measurements, magma supply, all under watch. For now, the eruption is holding steady.
Daily life across the island is not changing. No closures, no evacuations, just a glow on the horizon at night and a reminder that this landscape writes its own rules.
As one Hilo resident told a radio host this morning: “She’s awake again. You do not fight it. You just live with it.”
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Trained in war zones, raised in Newark, and seasoned in city hall, Jordan blends grit reporting with deep integrity. From floods to finance bills, they’re always first on scene and last to leave.
