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HILO, Hawaii (Agencies)
One of the world’s most active volcanoes, Kilauea on Hawaii’s Big Island, began spewing lava from the north vent Wednesday, the latest event in an ongoing eruption that began almost six months ago.
Lava fountains reached heights of more than 330 feet and fed multiple lava streams. Scientists with the US Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said the fountains were likely to go higher.
The latest event was preceded by gas-pistoning, in which gas accumulates at a lava column's top within a vent, on Tuesday.
The observatory said this process causes the lava surface to rise or piston, "Eventually, gas escapes as splatter/lava erupts, and lave drains back into the vent.”
These were occurring up to 10 times an hour but increased in intensity until a small, sustained dome fountain began to feed flows to the crater floor a day later.
It is the 25th eruptive episode since the volcano on the southeastern part of the island began erupting on December 23. It has been pausing and resuming since.
