Kīlauea

The short answer

Kīlauea is an active shield volcano on the south-eastern side of the Island of Hawaiʻi, the largest island of the US state of Hawaiʻi, inside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Its summit is a broad caldera, Kaluapele, and inside the caldera is the crater Halemaʻumaʻu. The National Park Service describes Halemaʻumaʻu as the home of Pele, the Hawaiian volcano deity, who is embodied by lava and revered by many Hawaiians as family. The US Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, founded by Thomas Jaggar in 1912 and for many years based on the caldera rim, monitors it. By Wikipedia’s account Kīlauea erupted almost without a break on its east rift zone from 1983 to 2018. Since 23 December 2024 it has erupted in short fountaining episodes inside Halemaʻumaʻu, in an area of the park closed to the public.

Why it's worth knowing

Volcanic craters hold fire. For a year and a half, this one held water.

In 2018 an eruption far down the east rift zone, in the lower Puna district, drained magma from beneath the summit, and the summit collapsed. The US Geological Survey describes the result as a pit more than 500 metres deep inside the caldera. Its new floor lay below the water table.

On 25 July 2019 the observatory saw ponded water at the bottom of the pit. It was groundwater, seeping back in as the water table recovered, and the USGS calls it the first lake observed within Kīlauea’s caldera in at least 200 years. The observatory measured it routinely with a laser rangefinder: the water rose between 5 and 15 centimetres a day, and by December 2020 the lake was about 50 metres deep.

At about 9:30 on the night of 20 December 2020 an eruption broke out in the walls of Halemaʻumaʻu and lava poured into the lake. The USGS records that the lake boiled off in about an hour and a half. Seventeen months of water went in ninety minutes.

The field notes

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Fountains in episodes

Since 23 December 2024 Kīlauea’s summit has erupted in episodes: several hours of lava fountaining from vents in Halemaʻumaʻu, then a pause of days or weeks. In July 2025 the fountains reached about 370 metres, and most of what they throw falls back inside the closed area of the park.

Pele’s house

The National Park Service describes Halemaʻumaʻu as sacred. In Hawaiian tradition, as the park tells it, Pele travelled south-east through the islands and made her permanent home in the crater; Wikipedia gives the caldera’s name, Kaluapele, as “the pit of Pele”. The park asks visitors to watch eruptions quietly, to stay out of closed areas and to give Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners space to practise their customs, and notes that in Hawaiian tradition it is customary to ask Pele’s permission to travel through her land.

Glass on the wind

The fountains make a strange weather. Pele’s hair, in the USGS’s description, is strands of volcanic glass drawn out by lava fountaining, light enough to be carried more than 15 kilometres from the vent. During episode 41, on 24 January 2026, the observatory reported reticulite, Pele’s hair and ash falling heavily through the Volcano area and across the east side of the island.

What the summit has done before

Kīlauea’s history includes loss. Wikipedia’s account records that an explosive eruption in 1790 killed a party of warriors of the army of Keōua Kuahuʻula near the summit, that the 1983–2018 eruption buried the towns of Kalapana and Kaimū in 1990, and that the 2018 eruption in lower Puna destroyed homes in Leilani Estates and Kapoho.

A relic from Kīlauea

Getting there

How to get there. The park is open 24 hours a day, all year. The Kīlauea Visitor Center, on Crater Rim Drive, opens daily from 7:45 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Seeing the eruption. The vents are in a closed, hazardous area. The park says the eruption can be watched from open viewing areas along the caldera rim; Kīlauea Overlook, 2.5 miles from the entrance station, looks down into the bottom of the crater. Overlooks such as Uēkahuna and Kīlauea Overlook can close for days or weeks after heavy falls of tephra while park staff clear cinders. Episodes are brief, and the pauses between them vary.

The air. Volcanic gas and vog can reach unhealthy levels in the park. The park asks visitors to check its air-quality page before coming, and warns that even low levels of volcanic gas threaten people with heart or breathing problems, infants, young children and pregnant women. The park lists volcanic gas, steep unstable cliff edges, earth cracks and tephra among the hazards.

Safety. The volcano sets its own rules: the vents lie in a closed, hazardous area, and the eruption changes from day to day.

Common questions

What did Kīlauea’s summit do after December 2024?

It fountained in episodes. From 23 December 2024 the summit of Kīlauea, on the Island of Hawaiʻi, threw up lava from vents in Halemaʻumaʻu crater a few hours at a time, with pauses of days or weeks between; in July 2025 the fountains reached about 370 metres.

Can you see the Kīlauea eruption?

Yes, from open viewing areas along the rim of Kīlauea’s summit caldera in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, when an episode is under way. The vents lie in a closed, hazardous area of the park, and overlooks such as Kīlauea Overlook and Uēkahuna close temporarily after heavy tephra falls while park staff clear cinders.

What happened to the lake in Halemaʻumaʻu?

A lake of groundwater formed at the bottom of Halemaʻumaʻu crater, at the summit of Kīlauea in Hawaiʻi, from 25 July 2019 and grew to about 50 metres deep. On the night of 20 December 2020 an eruption in the crater wall poured lava into it, and the US Geological Survey records that the lake boiled off in about an hour and a half.

Why did water appear in Kīlauea’s crater?

In 2018 Kīlauea’s summit collapsed as magma drained to an eruption in the lower Puna district, leaving a pit more than 500 metres deep at Halemaʻumaʻu. Its floor lay below the water table, and as the water table recovered, groundwater seeped in. The US Geological Survey calls it the first lake observed in Kīlauea’s caldera in at least 200 years.

What does the park say about the eruption and the air at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park?

Kīlauea’s summit eruption is confined to a closed area of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, and the park keeps open viewing areas along the caldera rim. The park warns that volcanic gas and vog can reach unhealthy levels, and that even low levels threaten people with heart or breathing conditions, infants, young children and pregnant women; it asks visitors to check air quality before coming.

Why is Halemaʻumaʻu sacred?

In Native Hawaiian tradition Halemaʻumaʻu, the crater at the summit of Kīlauea, is the home of Pele, the volcano deity, who is embodied by lava and revered by many Hawaiians as family, according to the National Park Service. The park asks visitors to watch eruptions quietly and to give cultural practitioners space to practise their customs.

What is Pele’s hair?

Pele’s hair is strands of volcanic glass drawn out of molten lava by fountaining, named for the Hawaiian volcano deity. The US Geological Survey notes that it can be carried more than 15 kilometres from the vent; during Kīlauea’s episode 41, on 24 January 2026, it fell heavily with other tephra around the Volcano area of the Island of Hawaiʻi.

When is Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park open?

All the time. Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, which contains Kīlauea’s summit on the Island of Hawaiʻi, is open 24 hours a day all year, about 45 minutes’ drive from Hilo.