Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park is absolutely stunning (and safe, away from the closed area). It's like being on a different planet. If you haven't been to the Big Island and the park, you should add it to your bucket list.
Sadly there was an ongoing eruption when me and my SO visited the Big Island, so the entire park was closed. Was a bit bummed out, on the other hand people lost their homes so keeping it in perspective.
That said, I second visiting the Big Island and visit various sites. Driving less than an hour and going from barren volcanic landscapes to lush rainforests was something else, and watching the sunset from Mauna Kea was magical. And lots of great beaches, and most that weren't next to a resort had very few people.
While the island is big relative to the other Hawaiian islands, its small enough that you can drive around it in a day.
I'd recommend staying on the Kona side, which is the dry and somewhat barren side. The Hilo side has rainforests for a reason.
The Big Island has good B&B's in many parts of the island so I recommend staying in multiple places, to see the local sights without a long drive afterwards.
It's wild to see this footage safely behind a monitor. Kind of macabre to ponder but I wonder if the victims of Pompeii had a similar experience. The last we see is a hailstorm of ash and molten lava raining down then signal lost.
iirc, Pompeii was a pyroclastic flow [0], a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter with speeds between 100-700 km/hr and temperatures up to 1000°C. So, probably something like that, but a lot bigger, faster, and arriving faster from further away.
I was surprised how long the camera lasted getting buried. It'd be a not good end.
When I walked across the crater as a kid, I remember there was an inner crater that I was told had filled up with lava back in the 80s and then drained down leaving a deep well. Does someone have a map of the historical eruption locations within the main summit crater?
Kilauea is more or less constantly erupting. This is the 38th eruptive episode since in the past year: https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/science/eruption-info... (note that the 38th episode started a few hours ago as of this message). Although this is still considered "one" eruption by USGS.
Starting at 9:46 is when it goes from wow to WOW. The last 2 minutes in particular are incredible, including the bizarre artifacts in the last 15 seconds before the stream dies.
They have three cameras, well, had three. The south rim camera (v3) was overrun by the eruption at about 0957 local time, you can rewind the stream and watch its final moments.
This was incredible to watch, and I have to chuckle at this title. It's obvious why the webcam matters, with people round the world watching, but the destruction of a webcam is such a tiny thing in comparison to the eruption itself it's strangely funny.
If we're lucky, we (humanity) get to experience another supervolcano eruption sometime in the future, and then we'll finally get some good content out of it.
The threat level for airplanes is set to orange... for anyone dumb enough to fly over an erupting volcano. The orange flying from the ground would be all the motivation I need to stay clear of it.
Volcanic ash is particularly bad because it is so abrasive, having been freshly formed without any opportunity for erosion to smooth it down like regular dust.
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park is absolutely stunning (and safe, away from the closed area). It's like being on a different planet. If you haven't been to the Big Island and the park, you should add it to your bucket list.
Sadly there was an ongoing eruption when me and my SO visited the Big Island, so the entire park was closed. Was a bit bummed out, on the other hand people lost their homes so keeping it in perspective.
That said, I second visiting the Big Island and visit various sites. Driving less than an hour and going from barren volcanic landscapes to lush rainforests was something else, and watching the sunset from Mauna Kea was magical. And lots of great beaches, and most that weren't next to a resort had very few people.
While the island is big relative to the other Hawaiian islands, its small enough that you can drive around it in a day.
I'd recommend staying on the Kona side, which is the dry and somewhat barren side. The Hilo side has rainforests for a reason.
The Big Island has good B&B's in many parts of the island so I recommend staying in multiple places, to see the local sights without a long drive afterwards.
A university professor here visits many areas. He complained by far the most of the dust in the air that stuck around for quite a while there.
It's wild to see this footage safely behind a monitor. Kind of macabre to ponder but I wonder if the victims of Pompeii had a similar experience. The last we see is a hailstorm of ash and molten lava raining down then signal lost.
iirc, Pompeii was a pyroclastic flow [0], a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter with speeds between 100-700 km/hr and temperatures up to 1000°C. So, probably something like that, but a lot bigger, faster, and arriving faster from further away.
I was surprised how long the camera lasted getting buried. It'd be a not good end.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyroclastic_flow
When I walked across the crater as a kid, I remember there was an inner crater that I was told had filled up with lava back in the 80s and then drained down leaving a deep well. Does someone have a map of the historical eruption locations within the main summit crater?
USGS has a page on the history of Kilauea here: https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/science/geology-and-h..., which also has some links on some of the eruptions in recorded history.
Probably the closest thing to what you're looking for is here: https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/kilauea-caldera-simplified..., which lists the age of the most recent lave flows as of 2008 (when Halema'uma'u started filling up again). The 2018 eruption caused another caldera collapse within the crater, enlarging Halema'uma'u and creating a new mini-caldera that's labeled as the "down-dropped block" in subsequent maps, e.g. https://www.usgs.gov/maps/october-5-2021-kilauea-summit-erup... ... although, since then, Halema'uma'u has erupted enough lava to more or less fill the entire down-dropped block, see, e.g., the most recent map: https://www.usgs.gov/maps/november-25-2025-kilauea-summit-er...
That arcing of the lava really is something to behold. The pressures to push molten rock like that are impressive.
icy what you did there
Kilauea is more or less constantly erupting. This is the 38th eruptive episode since in the past year: https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/science/eruption-info... (note that the 38th episode started a few hours ago as of this message). Although this is still considered "one" eruption by USGS.
USGC live stream
https://m.youtube.com/usgs/live
Looks like the camera and stream are still active...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BqmpkUdMtyA
Starting at 9:46 is when it goes from wow to WOW. The last 2 minutes in particular are incredible, including the bizarre artifacts in the last 15 seconds before the stream dies.
They have three cameras, well, had three. The south rim camera (v3) was overrun by the eruption at about 0957 local time, you can rewind the stream and watch its final moments.
This was incredible to watch, and I have to chuckle at this title. It's obvious why the webcam matters, with people round the world watching, but the destruction of a webcam is such a tiny thing in comparison to the eruption itself it's strangely funny.
Would be nice to have a mobile phone live streaming webcam viewer that vibrates when the webcam is destroyed!
Pretty cool - that looks like two or three eruption holes.
Now someone timejump to krakatau, year 1883 ...
If we're lucky, we (humanity) get to experience another supervolcano eruption sometime in the future, and then we'll finally get some good content out of it.
Personally I’m looking forward to a nearby supernova or giant meteor impact!
The final moments of the webcam were even better than I had hoped.
That thing took a licking and kept on ticking.
The threat level for airplanes is set to orange... for anyone dumb enough to fly over an erupting volcano. The orange flying from the ground would be all the motivation I need to stay clear of it.
It was an awesome video, though.
> The threat level for airplanes is set to orange... for anyone dumb enough to fly over an erupting volcano.
Even 180km away from the eruption, airplanes can be seriously damaged [1].
Jet engines really, really do not like to ingest anything else than air and, maybe, a tad bit of water.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_009
Volcanic ash is particularly bad because it is so abrasive, having been freshly formed without any opportunity for erosion to smooth it down like regular dust.