EXPLAINER: Fountaining Hawaii lava creates molten rock lake

HONOLULU (AP) — Kilauea, one of the most active volcanos on Earth, began erupting on Hawaii’s Big Island Wednesday. The eruption is not in an area with homes and is entirely contained within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Officials said increased earthquake activity and ground swelling before the eruption put them on high alert. Fissures then opened in the summit area and sent lava fountaining into the sky. Now the area has filled with molten rock, creating a lake of lava in the volcano's crater.

The new lava is an expected evolution of a volcano that is recharging after a huge eruption in 2018 drained much of its magma.

The 2018 eruption destroyed hundreds of homes and displaced thousands of residents. But experts say this latest eruption is not expected to flow into residential areas.

Here’s an overview of the latest eruption at Kilauea:

DID SCIENTISTS KNOW IT WAS COMING?

Scientists at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory noticed a surge of earthquakes about 5 miles (8 kilometers) east of the summit's caldera early Wednesday. By the afternoon another series of earthquakes accompanied by ground swelling prompted them to increase the alert level.

“We picked up a series of earthquakes down the east rift zone, so on the order of about 5 miles from the summit. And these kind of came in what we would call a small swarm. So one after another," said Ken Hon, the USGS scientist in charge of Hawaii Volcano Observatory. "They were enough of an alert that we became suspicious that pressure was building within the system.”

The agency raised its alert level “to orange or watch, anticipating that there might be an eruption,” Hon said. "And 20 minutes later, in fact, there was an eruption.”

It’s not uncommon for Kilauea to have earthquakes, which often indicate magma is moving...