The Hawaii crater began to erupt at 9.30pm local time on Sunday evening and an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.4 was reported in the area shortly after. The US Geological Survey stated the eruption occurred within Kīlauea’s summit caldera.
USGS added: “The situation is rapidly evolving and HVO will issue another statement when more information is available.”
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory followed up with a statement outlining further monitoring of the volcano will take place.
The statement said: “HVO continues to monitor Kīlauea as the situation is rapidly evolving with this evening’s eruption at the summit of Kīlauea.
“We will send out further notifications on Kīlauea and other Hawaiian volcanoes as we observe changes.”
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The UGS report on the volcano said: “Whereas this type of seismicity was observed on average once every few weeks following the 2018 eruption, rates have increased to over a dozen in the past several days.
“Other monitoring data streams including volcanic gas and webcam imagery were stable until this eruption.
“An earthquake swarm began on the evening of December 20, accompanied by ground deformation detected by tiltmeters.
“An orange glow was subsequently observed on IR monitoring cameras and visually beginning approximately 21:36 HST.”
“This includes the communities of Pahala, Wood Valley, Naalehu and Ocean View.
“Avoid excessive exposure to ash which is an eye and respiratory irritant.
“Those with respiratory sensitivities should take extra precaution to minimize exposure.”