After over two years of quiet, Kilauea has once again erupted. The current eruption is confined to the Halemaumau Crater and is not generally visible from any vantage point in the National Park. The lava boiled off the water lake and is now building a lava lake that is larger than the water lake. As of this writing, the lava lake is rising several yard per hour. The image above is an aerial view provided by the Hawaii Volcanoes Observatory. We are waiting to see what develops from this point. The eruption was preceded by weeks of small earthquakes in the summit area that culminated in a 4.4 magnitude earthquake around 9:30 PM on 12/20/2020. That marked the onset of the eruption.
