Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano begins erupting

The observatory said it found glow in webcam images of Kīlauea’s summit Wednesday afternoon local time, indicating the volcano was erupting. Volcanic activity is confined to the Halemaʻumaʻu crater, which sits atop the summit in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

No homes are threatened. High levels of volcanic gas are the primary hazard of concern, the observatory said.

Thousands of people have gone to the park in the southern part of the island of Hawaii to see the eruption, according to the National Park Service. The park remains open all day.

“We continue to work with USGS scientists to receive the latest volcanic updates, and remind visitors that the eruptive activity and accessibility could change at any time," said Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Superintendent Rhonda Loh.

The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has boosted the alert level for the volcano to warning, meaning a hazardous eruption is suspected, imminent or already happening. It also raised the volcano’s aviation color code to red, the U.S. Geological Survey’s highest level. That code is given when an eruption is imminent with significant emission of volcanic ash likely, or when an eruption is happening already or suspected with significant emission of the ash.

There were almost 50 Kīlauea eruptions between 1912 and 2012, according to the observatory. An eruption at the summit that lasted from December to May created a lava lake within Halema‘uma‘u crater.

The U.S. is home to 161 potentially active volcanoes, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory monitors six active volcanoes on Maui and Hawaii, but it says that Hawaii—home to four of the active volcanoes—is the most lively. Kīlauea is Hawaii’s youngest volcano and is among the world’s most active, according to the observatory.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text