Lava from Big Island’s Kilauea volcano has now been responsible for destroying hundreds of home. Scientists have had little idea of when exactly the activity could stop, as Kilauea has been continuously busy for the past 35 years. The volcano has been active enough to produce an entire new outcrop of land jutting of the coast at Kapoho Bay. Geologists have been constantly monitoring the summit of the volcano for changes, and some areas are apparently starting to quiet down.

The US Geological Survey monitoring has found the volcano has been erupting on and off for centuries now. Despite reports that fissure 22 on the volcano is now just dribbling lava, fissure 8 is still going strong, with 100 cubic metres of lava per second leaking out. A new report from the area is now estimating that the eruption could continue for years to come.

The report said: "Given this volume and the sustained withdrawal of magma from the summit reservoir without appreciable deformation in the lower East Rift Zone, it is most likely that the LERZ eruption may continue for months to years. “If the ongoing eruption maintains its current style of activity at a high eruption rate, then it may take months to a year or two to wind down.” The unpredictable nature of the volcano is also something researchers have taken into account. The report says: ”While this seems to be the most likely outcome, a pause in the eruption, followed by additional activity, cannot be ruled out, nor can an abrupt cessation or a transition to steady, longer-lived activity at a lower effusion rate."

Where is the lava from Kilauea heading? Kilauea’s lava flow has managed to destroy hundreds of homes, and the new report claims that it could move towards entirely new neighbourhoods. The latest reports from USGS have shown that lava flows are now approaching Isaac Hale park in the Alahanui area, and are only 500m away. Breaches and overflows in the channelised lava flows are threatening to push it in new directions. The report says: "The main hazard from the source cone and the channel system is a failure of the cone or channel walls or blockage of the channel where it divides in narrower braids. “Either could divert most, if not all, of the lava to a new course depending on where the breach occurs.” </s> The eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has sent so much lava flowing into nearby Kapoho Bay that the area is now completely filled.The United States Geological Survey announced Tuesday morning that an aerial survey of the shallow bay on the Big Island's east coast confirmed it was completely filled. To date, the coastline has been extended 0.7 miles, and lava continues to fountain from fissure 8, the source of the flow.Helicopter footage showed dangerous laze (lava haze) pluming from the new coastline. Miles of charred, blackened landscape are visible behind the ocean-entry point, showing the lava flow's path of destruction from the inland fissure.There's no guarantee that the extended coastline won't be further altered; the USGS warned that the newly formed lava delta is unstable and easily eroded by the surf. In some instances, collapsing deltas can bring parts of the older sea cliff crashing into the water, too.The USGS reported that lava had inundated most of the nearby Kapoho Beach Lots and Vacationland subdivisions. Emergency management officials estimated that hundreds of homes in those subdivisions were destroyed by lava in addition to the dozens of homes destroyed in the Leilani Estates neighborhood in nearby Puna. </s> Arresting new footage shows lava from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano as it creeps across the Big Island, destroying everything in its path.The helicopter footage shows fires burning and smoke rising across miles of lava-charred landscape. Just feet away from the destruction sits Hawaii's normally verdant landscape, lush with vegetation yet dangerously close to the threatening lava.The United States Geological Survey shot the footage the morning of Saturday, May 19, in the vicinity of fissure 20. Fountaining lava is visible in the background of the shot.USGS said activity at the fissure began to intensify on May 18. The lava is moving inconsistently and with a frequently shifting rate of flow, according to the agency.Elsewhere, Kilauea's activity continues to threaten property. On Saturday evening, lava flows destroyed four additional homes in a neighborhood previously threatened by volcanic activity, and officials say more than 40 homes and other buildings have been destroyed by lava since the volcanic activity began weeks ago."We have no way of knowing whether this is really the beginning or toward the end of this eruption," Tom Shea, a volcanologist at the University of Hawaii, told the Associated Press. "We're kind of all right now in this world of uncertainty."Experts estimate that much of the lava that has emerged thus far has been underground for decades, possibly dating back to a 1955 eruption. </s> The summit of Hawaii‘s Kilauea volcano erupted early on Wednesday and fissures on its eastern slope sent fountains of lava up to 50 metres high, as the volcano showed no signs of calming down after six weeks of intensified activity.

A steam explosion at the summit will likely shower communities near the volcano with ash, the Hawaii Civil Defense Agency said.

“The summit explosion produced an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4,” the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) said.

The volcano has produced hundreds of moderate earthquakes since it first began erupting on May 3, caused by magma draining from inside the volcano and moving underground.

The USGS released aerial footage of the continued eruption, showing lava reaching waters edge on Big Island.

The magma has been spouting out of fissures from the ground along Kilauea flank, causing mass evacuations from communities. The most active fissure now, called “Fissure 8,” continued to pour into the ocean at Kapoho Bay, producing a hydrochloric acid mist called “laze,” formed when lava enters seawater.

“Gas emissions from the fissure eruption and at the ocean entry continue to be very high,” the Civil Defense Agency said.

The Kilauea eruption, now in its 41st day, has destroyed more than 600 homes, spread lava over 2,000 acres of land and opened up at least 22 fissures in the ground, according to Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim.

It is the most destructive in the United States since the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington, which killed at least 57 people.

U.S. President Donald Trump has approved federal disaster aid for residents whose homes were destroyed or damaged because of the Kilauea volcano eruption.

Gov. David Ige said Trump approved the request for individual assistance on Thursday.

Ige said qualifying residents may receive help from the federal government for issues such as shelter, unemployment, trauma and legal matters.

Hawaii‘s eruption, however, has produced slow-moving lava that has destroyed hundreds of structures but allowed people to evacuate, in sharp contrast to Guatemala’s Fuego volcano that ejected fast pyroclastic flows, which buried villages in burning ash and killed at least 109 last week. </s> So far the two-month long eruption of Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii has sown an epic amount of destruction, covering entire neighborhoods with lava, evaporating the island's largest lake and transforming a tropical landscape to something more like Mordor.

But while the devastation is both tragic and impressive, there is some irony in that the eruption is actually a net gain for this island, at least in terms of total land mass.

Lava erupted from two dozen fissures in Kilauea's lower East Rift Zone, transforming the Puna area, especially the communities of Leilani Estates and Kapoho. But in recent weeks most of the action has come from fissure 8, which has been providing steady and even rapid flows of lava making its way down to the ocean entry at Kapoho.

A few months ago, there was a picturesque half-moon bay at this spot, but since then lava has completely filled in the bay and begun forming a brand new lava delta. As of Friday, the eruption had laid down a total of 585 acres of new land where previously there was only ocean. That's almost an entire square mile of added land mass, and each day it grows further.

But despite what you may have heard, the creation of new real estate in paradise doesn't mean it's up for grabs. Actually, the law says all those new acres belong to the Hawaiian state government. But with the ongoing eruption showing no signs of slowing, it's going to be a while before any new state parks or beaches are constructed.

Besides, the reshaping of the coastline may just be getting started. According to data from the USGS, last week the lava delta and the island grew at a rate of about ten new acres added each day. </s> Kilauea has been erupting continuously since May 3, when a series of earthquakes resulted in a powerful expulsion of lava. Earthquakes continue to rock the summit, with the draining lava resulting in subsidence inside the volcano. United States Geological Survey spokesman Steve Brantley told residents: “At the summit, the volcano continues to subside very slowly over time and periodically, now once about every 30 hours or almost every day, the ground drops as much as 2.5m. "Each drop results in a ground shaking that’s equivalent to about a magnitude 5 event.” Fissure 8 remains the most active, with lava pouring out into a channel constantly flowing across the island.

However, fissure 20 has also reactivated, spewing lava into the air and toward the ocean. Fissures are cracks in the earth’s surface which are created when lava from an erupting volcano forces its way up towards land. Mr Brantley added: "A high rate of lava is still being erupted and we really haven’t noticed a change in that rate. "The lava is pouring into the open channel that makes it’s way to the northeast and makes a sharp right-hand turn on the east side of Kapoho crater.

"A little over a week ago, the open channel that was pouring into the ocean began to recede such that the distal portion of that lava flow was being covered over with a cooled surface. "Instead the lava was moving through the core of that flow and entering the ocean in a very broad area." At 4pm Wednesday local time (3am Thursday BST), The Hawaii Civil Defense issued a warning for residents. This Civil Defence Message reported: “Fissure 8 continues to erupt lava into the perched channel heading northeast from the vent. “A flow moving around the west side of Kapoho Cone has proceeded to a quarter of a mile to the coast.

“Break outs are occurring from the main channel in Leilani Estates. "The United States Geological Survey has confirmed that two homes on Luana Street have been destroyed by the break out and one home on Nohea Street is threatened.” The latest official number of houses destroyed in Lower Puna was 700 - a figure which continues to rise as the volcano erupts. The USGS said lava has covered more than 6,100 acres across Big Island, with a channel continuously pouring into the ocean. </s> — Geologists monitoring the eruption of the Kilauea volcano say it could continue to spout lava for a long time.

The volcano has been erupting since early May in the Leilani Estates neighborhood on Hawaii's big island, forcing evacuations and destroying more than 700 homes. The US Geological Survey's Hawaii Volcano Observatory said the eruption has covered more than 12 square miles (23 square kilometers) with black lava and has added 700 acres of new land to the island.

A report from the Hawaii Volcano Observatory found that this eruption, in what geologists call Kilauea's lower East Rift Zone, has produced a greater volume of lava than past eruptions in the area.

"Given this volume and the sustained withdrawal of magma from the summit reservoir without appreciable deformation in the lower East Rift Zone, it is most likely that the LERZ eruption may continue for months to years," the report said.

Kilauea has been erupting on and off for centuries, according to the US Geological Survey.

The most recent eruption has ripped dozens of fissures in the Earth's surface, allowing lava and dangerous gasses to escape. The most prominent is fissure 8, which is spewing out lava that runs in a channel from Leilani Estates to the ocean.

The report said that lava is flowing out of fissure 8 at an estimated rate of 100 cubic meters per second and shows no signs of waning pressure.

'If the ongoing eruption maintains its current style of activity at a high eruption rate, then it may take months to a year or two to wind down," it said. "While this seems to be the most likely outcome, a pause in the eruption, followed by additional activity, cannot be ruled out, nor can an abrupt cessation or a transition to steady, longer-lived activity at a lower effusion rate."

The Hawaii Volcano Observatory gave the report to the Hawaii County Civil Defense to help them prepare for possible threats from the eruption.

It said that a breach in the current channel could divert the lava in a new direction and put other areas at risk.

"The main hazard from the source cone and the channel system is a failure of the cone or channel walls or blockage of the channel where it divides in narrower braids. Either could divert most, if not all, of the lava to a new course depending on where the breach occurs," the report said.

The report focused on threats to areas north of the current lava flow because they have not been evacuated. </s> First it was catastrophic lava. Then it was sulfur dioxide. Now Big Island residents have yet another danger to worry about.

Laze — a mashup of “lava” and “haze” — is a nasty product formed when hot lava hits the ocean, sending hydrochloric acid and volcanic glass particles into the air.

And now it’s a real threat after lava crossed Highway 137 late Saturday night and entered the Pacific Ocean, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) said.

Laze can cause lung, eye and skin irritation. And it’s proven deadly in the past.

“This hot, corrosive gas mixture caused two deaths immediately adjacent to the coastal entry point in 2000, when seawater washed across recent and active lava flows,” the HVO said.

Officials are warning people to stay away from areas where lava meets the ocean. But further inland, residents have other problems.

The Kilauea volcano erupted at least twice this weekend — at one point launching a cloud of ash up to 10,000 feet high.

“These eruptions caused a 5.0 magnitude and a 4.9 magnitude tremor at the summit,” CNN meteorologist Haley Brink said.

“Additional explosive events that could produce minor amounts of ashfall downwind are possible at any time.”

Since Kilauea’s massive eruption May 3, Brink said, about 2,250 earthquakes have struck on or around Hawaii’s Big Island.

As the earth keeps shaking, liquid fire keeps flowing.

Flaming rivers of molten rock have already destroyed at least 40 structures. But newer, fresher lava shooting out from fissures spell more danger.

“The consistency of lava is now changing,” CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar said. “Now it is runnier, but that is allowing it to move faster.”

The volcano has led to almost two dozen fissures that have cracked open the earth’s surface — purging fountains of lava and dangerous sulfur dioxide.

And some fissures refuse to die.

“A handful of old fissures have reactivated and joined together over the past few days,” CNN’s Scott McLean reported from Pahoa. “Lava is pouring out like a fountain … feeding a fast-moving lava stream that’s now reached the ocean.”

Resident Ikaika Marzo said the lava flow isn’t just treacherous. It’s like hell on Earth.

“It sounds like 10 or 20 jets taking off from your backyard at the same time,” Marzo told CNN affiliate Hawaii News Now.

“It’s been like hell,” he said. “It’s like huge grenades going off. It shakes the whole community.” </s> The molten lava on the island of Hawaii has destroyed what officials said may be hundreds of homes, including a vacation home of the island’s mayor, Harry Kim, as a spewing vent has sent a wide, slow-moving river of lava into a residential community and the sea beyond it on the island’s east side.

The lava flow, which has destroyed homes in the community of Kapoho and filled in an ocean bay known for snorkeling and tidal pools, is coming from a nearby fissure, which has spouted a fountain of lava that has reached as high as 250 feet in recent days. Janet Snyder, a spokeswoman for Hawaii County, said that officials believed that hundreds of homes in the Kapoho Beach Lots and Vacationland areas had been destroyed overnight, adding to a confirmed toll of 117 homes from Monday.

“Nobody knows what comes next as far as the lava goes,” Snyder told The Washington Post.

Photos show the lava’s recent advance across the lush countryside and into the housing subdivision and bay. The molten rock has formed a new delta in the ocean after extending at least seven-tenths of a mile out, officials said. The bay is nearly completely filled in with lava, according to The Associated Press.

Officials warned residents about the presence of laze, a potentially dangerous mix of hydrochloric acid, steam and tiny glass particles in the air.

Carolyn Boudreault, a Kapoho resident who is currently staying in Boston with her family, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the bay was a treasured place. “It’s a beautiful spot,” she said Monday. “Gorgeous.”

Hawaii officials told the news outlet that the community was made up primarily of vacation homes.

There have been 9,900 earthquakes on the island since May 4 as a result of the geological activity, the USGS said, including about 500 near Kilauea’s summit over the weekend, according to CNN.

The lava flow has covered about 7.7 square miles of the island, according to the USGS.
Footage from the United States Geological Survey shows lava activity at Kīlauea slowing down.