X
You can check the status of the fountains via three livestream cams provided by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Update at 3:15 a.m. May 26: “This is one for the history books!” exclaimed Kelli Veras in her post with a Facebook reel featuring a video of lava fountaining Sunday evening during Episode 23 of the ongoing eruption in Halemaʻumaʻu Crater at the summit of the Big Island’s Kīlauea volcano.
Veras said she was “blown away by the power [and] the beauty of the earth,” and said anyone and everyone — if they were on the Big Island — better not have missed this episode: “Wow. WOW.”
Image from a U.S. Geological Survey livestream cam at the summit of Kīlauea volcano on the Big Island captured at 5:19 p.m. Sunday, May 25, 2025, and shared on Facebook by Jerry Sewell.
She was one of the many people posting across social media about the latest phase of sustained lava fountaining of the Halemaʻumaʻu eruption that began Dec. 23, 2024, within Kaluapele, the summit caldera of Kīlauea, inside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.
But for as long as the volcano teased the spectacular geysers of molten rock it ejected to more than 1,000 feet high at times, if you waited to go — or unfortunately got stuck in traffic on your way — you lost your window of opportunity to catch what many described as the best phase of the eruption yet.
Episode 23 ended abruptly at 10:25 p.m. Sunday, just 6 hours and 10 minutes after sustained lava fountaining began at 4:15 p.m., with high geysers starting in the north vent, quickly escalating to more than 1,000 feet high by 5:20 p.m.
The south vent followed lava fountains of about 230 feet by the same time, but geysers increased to more than 800 feet in height at one point.
The north vent stopped erupting at 9:48 p.m. Its sister to the south ceased activity at about 10:25 p.m.
Lava flows covered about half of the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater floor during Episode 23.
The volcanic plume from this eruptive phase was heavily laden with tephra — which is ash, scoria and Pele’s hair — and reached an impressive height of at least 5,000 feet.
Read the entire article here – Continually Updated!
Image from a U.S. Geological Survey livestream cam at the summit of Kīlauea volcano on the Big Island captured at 7:07 p.m. Sunday, May 25, 2025.
