Hawaii's Kilauea Eruption Timeline

"[This eruption was] truly unprecedented in the modern record."
"Everybody’s chewing on all the great data collected from this eruption."
"That will go on for years and years."
Christina Neal, head scientist, U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Big Island 

"There’s no reason why we should have expected there would be hydrothermal activity that would be alive within the first 100 days. This is actually life here!"
"[The discovery suggests] how volcanism can give rise to the chemical energy that can drive primitive microbial organisms and flower a whole ecosystem."
"[Studying how hydrothermal life forms near volcanoes that aren’t along tectonic boundaries on Earth could reveal a lot about other celestial bodies]. This is a better analog of what we expect to them to be like [but] it is what’s least studied."
Chris German, geologist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Falmouth, Mass. 

"[The findings were highly valuable for the monitoring of Kilauea]: Having very high resolution ground deformation measurements before, during and after eruption is exceptional, and will help us to understand how magma behaves in shallow settings better—and in the Kilauea plumbing system in particular."
Pete Rowley, volcanologist, University of Hull, United Kingdom

Lava from a Kilauea volcano fissure advances up a residential street in Leilani Estates, on Hawaii's Big Island, on May 27. Mario Tama/Getty Images

On April 30 of 2018 the collapse of the Pu'u 'O'o crater atop Kilauea volcano on Hawaii surprised geology scientists and vulcanologists all over the world as the eruption continued for months, producing the equivalent of 320,000 Olympic-size swimming pools of lava transforming the landscape and in the process destroying 700 homes. A detailed timeline of the volcano's destructive eruption, the worst in recorded history, has been published by the Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

The data coming out of that publication has enabled vulcanologists to gain a deep understanding of the most hazardous volcano in America. Further investigation may help uncover mysteries of similar volcanoes located world-wide. One of several active volcanoes on Hawaii, Kilauea has been erupting continuously since 1983. The new eruption sequence initiated and seen in May saw two focal points; one, a flank area known as the lower east rift zone where the surface of the volcano is splitting, and the second, to the west, at the Helema'uma'u crater at Kilauea's summit.

A working hypothesis is that a breakdown of a subterranean barrier allowed magma to flow toward the lower east rift zone, coinciding with the April collapse of the Pu'u 'O'o crater. The lava lake representing a persistent pool of bubbling lava within the crater began to drain from the summit of Halema'uma'u, cracks appearing in the rift zone. The following day, May 3, the flow of lava began, necessitating an evacuation of thousands of residents.

A magnitude 6.9 temblor saw increased seismic activity at the summit on May 4, under the volcano's southern flank, the largest in over 40 years, likely a result of magma pushing against the southern section of the volcano, causing a fault to slip. On May 15 and 17 major summit explosions were recorded, producing plumes 3,700 and 9,150 metres in height, activity once thought to be driven by groundwater reacting with draining magma. According to Dr. Neal, however, new data suggests escaping magmatic gas accounted for the explosions.

June 24 saw fissures appearing in the rift zone and rivers of lava flowing up to 100 cubic meters per second, carrying deeper magma -- since old, stagnant magma had already erupted. The deeper magma was more fluid and packed with dissolved gasses, all erupting at 1200 degrees Celsius, leading to incredibly high fountains of lava emerging from some fissures, up to 80 meters in height. The largest freshwater lake on Hawaii vaporized in 90 minutes, on June 2, and by July hot updrafts contributed to pyrocumulus clouds.

A suffocating vog was produced by sulfur dioxide emissions intermixed with water vapor. As lava met the Pacific Ocean a laze, a mixture of hydrochloric acid, glass particles and steam was produced. Suddenly, on August 4, volcanic activity declined but not before a great area of the island was covered with lava. By the time the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park opened again on September 22 35.5 square kilometers had been layered over by lava and 500 meters of vertical collapse had occurred at the summit.

 Kilauea’s eruption last summer, its largest in 200 years, gave scientists a front-row seat to the volcanic processes that power the planet. In this image from August 5, lava heated to 1000° Celsius pours into the Pacific Ocean, sending a mixture of volcanic gases and evaporated seawater into the air.