The Halema‘uma‘u crater on Kilauea, located in Hawaii, has been relatively quiet over the last year after a frenzy of activity in 2018, which all began with an explosive eruption of ash 30,000 feet into the air during May.
But, since at least 2019, there has been a change that scientists believe could pose a potential danger to the Big Island. Water has started to collect in the caldera to form a lake.
NASA captured images showing before the lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u crater drained, after the caldera floor collapsed, and after the crater floor pooled with water.
A caldera is a large crater left behind in a volcano after an eruption. From 2010 until 2018, a lava lake had filled the caldera rather than water.
That changed in May 2018 when the eruption caused the lava lake to drain, collapsing the caldera floor and causing a hole nearly as deep as the 1,776-foot One World Trade Center.
About a year later, a helicopter pilot flying over the volcano noticed a mysterious green pool of water in the Halema‘uma‘u crater.
A second report of the same findings from a helicopter passenger prompted USGS-Hawaiian Volcano Observatory researchers to survey the green pool of water.
It was then discovered that water had indeed started to pool into the lowest part of the Halema’uma’u crater, and ever since the water was discovered in 2019, the depth of the lake has been steadily growing.
“We know that the crater floor dropped a little more than 70 meters below the water table in 2018. Any time that you punch a hole below the level of the water table, water is eventually going to come in and fill that hole,” explained Don Swanson, a volcanologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
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