Famous volcano blasts lava 1,000 feet high, triggering emergency closures at national park

A famous Hawaii volcano erupted recently, its lava reaching as high as 1,000 feet — with the eruption on March 10 prompting temporary closures at a national park and part of an important highway due to falling glassy volcanic fragments, including ash, The Associated Press reported.

Kilauea, on Hawaii’s Big Island, has been dazzling residents and visitors with an on-and-off eruption that periodically sends fountains of lava soaring into the sky.

The fountaining that began earlier this week marked the eruption’s 43rd episode since it began in Dec. 2024.

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A livestream showed two fountains of bright-red lava and smoke. 

It was unclear how long the fountaining would last, as some episodes have lasted a few days, with others just a few hours.

As in other times, the molten rock was confined within Kilauea’s summit crater inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and hasn’t threatened homes or buildings.

But the lava fountains were creating trouble for neighboring communities and a highway where the volcanic fragments and ash, known as tephra, were falling. 

The tephra prompted temporary closures at the national park around the summit and a partial closure of Highway 11, an important route around the island, on either side of the park.

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano also erupted in January, with photos showing lava piling up inside its summit crater, the U.S. Geological Survey said. 

The eruption came less than a month after its previous eruption ended.

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The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory detected the lava glowing inside the Halemaumau crater at the volcano’s summit caldera through webcam images, indicating Kilauea had begun erupting.

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The volcano’s summit is inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and is not near residential communities. 

But a 2018 Kilauea eruption destroyed over 700 residences. 

As the lava advanced, the volcano erupted in a series of rare explosive bursts at the time. 

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It hurled towering plumes of ash thousands of meters into the sky, according to Science magazine.

Fox News Digital’s Lawrence Richard, as well as The Associated Press, contributed reporting.