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Kilauea in Hawaii
Photo: Russ Bishop / imago images
Kilauea on Hawaii's largest island, the Big Island, is in a sense a long-runner among the world's volcanoes.
For decades it has been bubbling and hissing on the 1500 meter high shield volcano.
Lava usually wells up from the earth's interior and flows off in continuous lava flows - experts speak of effusive volcanic activity.
Violent eruptions, in which lava is thrown explosively from the earth's interior, are relatively rare here compared to the high level of activity.
But geologists are currently alarmed.
A number of earthquakes were measured on Tuesday.
The series began at night and lasted until morning, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory announced.
By 4:30 in the morning, more than 140 rather smaller earthquakes were registered.
The strongest achieved a value of 3.3 on the scale.
But most of them were below one.
So far, despite the so-called swarmquake, there have been no signs that the volcano will erupt immediately.
However, the scientists also registered changes to the soil surface.
This could indicate magma, molten rock that moves under the southern part of the caldera, the central, round basin of a volcano, according to the observatory.
There was no evidence of lava on the surface.
But the observatory changed the Kilauea volcano warning level from "attention" to "observation".
The potential for an outbreak seems at least increased at the moment.
The volcano will continue to be closely monitored and the warning levels will be adjusted, it said.
The Kīlauea belongs to a chain of volcanoes, which stretches from the northwest Pacific to Hawaii and lies over a geologically particularly active region, a so-called hot spot.
There were also major outbreaks again and again.
In 2018, around 700 homes were destroyed when lava flowed through volcanic vents into a residential area in the final year of an eruption that lasted more than three decades.
Later, from July 2019, a lake formed in the Halemaumau chimney, as helicopter pilots noticed, which became steadily larger and deeper.
It too could be an indication of an outbreak that is imminent at some point.
In addition, the mountain, which is about 320 kilometers south of Honolulu, has been erupting again since December last year.
Since then, the crevasses at the Halemaumau cone have been simmering again.
joe / AP
