HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano on the Big Island erupted and shot a steam and ash cloud into the atmosphere that lasted about an hour, an official with the National Weather Service said early Monday.
The eruption began late Sunday within Kilauea’s summit crater, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The crater, named Halemaumau, is located within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and was home to a longstanding lava lake that was present for years before a 2018 eruption caused it to drain.
Tom Birchard, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Hawaii, said lava interacted with a pool of water that had accumulated inside the crater, leading to a short-lived but fairly vigorous eruption.
When lava interacts with water it can cause explosive reactions.
All the water evaporated out of the lake and a steam cloud shot up about 30,000 feet (9 kilometers) into the…
