Honolulu, One of the most active volcanos on Earth is erupting on Hawaii’s Big Island.

Officials with the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed that an eruption has begun in Kilauea volcano’s Halemaumau crater at the volcano’s summit.

Webcam footage of the crater showed lava fountains covering the floor of the crater and billowing clouds of volcanic gas were rising into the air. The same area has been home to a large lava lake at various times throughout the volcano’s eruptive past.

The eruption is not in an area with homes and is entirely contained within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

“All signs indicate that it will stay within the crater,” said Ken Hon, the USGS scientist in charge of Hawaii Volcano Observatory. “We’re not seeing any indications that lava is moving into the lower part of the east rift zone where people live. Currently all the activity is within the park.”

The volcano’s alert level has been raised to “warning” and the aviation code changed to red.

Kilauea had a major eruption in 2018 that destroyed more than 700 homes and displaced thousands of residents. Before that eruption, the volcano had been slowly erupting for decades, but mostly not in densely populated residential areas.

After the 2018 eruption the summit lava lake stopped erupting and for the first time in recorded history began to fill with water, raising concerns about the possibility of an explosive interaction between lava and groundwater.

The same area of the volcano that began erupting yesterday also erupted in December and lasted until May, the Associated Press (AP) news reported.

Source: Oman News Agency