Red streams of lava and clouds of volcanic gas began erupting from Kilauea on Hawaii’s Big Island – one of the world’s most active volcanoes.

The eruption was confined to the volcano’s summit caldera in a remote, closed area of ​​Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, the Hawaii Volcano Observatory reported. The increased earthquake activity began at about 2 a.m. local time and within about half an hour, webcam images showed lava emerging from cracks in the caldera or spraying in fountains.

A livestream of the eruption broadcast by the US Geological Survey on Monday showed shots of red-hot lava shooting upward, followed by plumes of volcanic gas and ash. The fountains reached a height of up to 80 m early Monday morning.

“The lava is pouring out very quickly, as it normally does at the start of these eruptions,” Ken Hon, the scientist in charge at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said during a USGS livestream.

The most immediate threat came from volcanic smog, which could reach homes downwind, the observatory said. Such “vog” contains sulfur dioxide and can worsen symptoms in people with asthma, other respiratory diseases or cardiovascular disease.

The area where the eruption is taking place has been closed to the public since 2007 due to hazards such as instability of the crater walls, ground cracks and rock falls.

Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park includes the peaks of two of the world’s most active volcanoes: Kilauea and Mauna Loa.

Kilauea also erupted in June and September of that year, and with the exception of a quiet period between 1924 and 1952, eruptions have occurred regularly since written records. Its outbreaks can last days or a year. In 2018, Kilauea erupted from May to August, destroying more than 700 homes.

It is a shield volcano – a broad, massive formation shaped like a flat-lying warrior’s shield, as opposed to compound volcanoes that form a conical peak.

In 2019, USGS scientists confirmed a growing lake of water in Halema’uma’u Crater, an active pit in the summit caldera – marking the first time in modern history that water was visible from the volcano’s summit. In 2020, the ten-story-deep lake evaporated as lava re-entered the crater.