By Scott Shephard
The title of this post is how the USGS (United States Geological Survey) refers to the event pictured here. It is certainly a prosaic name for an event unlike any at this volcano since 1982. It gets its number from the times since December, 2024, that the volcano caldera has been actively spewing lava. The previous 13 “episodes” were fairly unremarkable. But on the day of this photo Kilauea was really showing off.
It’s hard to get an idea of scale from this photo but we were standing over 2 miles away from the eruption in a viewing area known as Volcano House. When I took this photo, I heard experts next to me, who had flown in to witness this, say that the top of this particular event reached around 1000’. Find a 10 story building in your town and stack 100 of them on top of each other, and that would equal what you are seeing here.
I’m only guessing but the chunks of rock you see outside the flame in the detail photo would likely be as big as small cars. What an amazing show.
You might be wondering if it was safe to be only two miles away from this explosive event. Well, yes, probably. The volcanoes on the Big Island of Hawaii are called shield volcanoes. That means that when they erupt they tend of ooze lava. The volcanoes aren’t like some you may have seen in the news (like Mt. St. Helens in Washington) that build up huge pressure and then explode in cataclysmic ways.
Of course, I wouldn’t be sharing this post if something bad had happened. Incidentally, we learned later in the day that Episode 14 had ended after 28 hours and 23 minutes.
We certainly were in the right place at the right time.
Note: below are a few more things from my visit to the volcano including a panoramic photo of the caldera, a couple of the spectators watching both inside and outside of the Volcano House. I am also including a slow motion video of the volcano. Sorry but it’s silent. You’ll have to imagine the rumble of the volcano and the appreciative cheers of the audience.
Canon R5 f/6 1/500 sec ISO 400
