Kīlauea

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Kīlauea (US: KIL-ə-WAY-ə, Hawaiian: [kiːlɐwˈwɛjə]) is an active shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands, located along the southeastern shore of Hawaii Island. The volcano is between 210,000 and 280,000 years old and grew above sea level about 100,000 years ago. Since the islands were settled, it has been the most active of the five volcanoes that together form the island and among the most active volcanoes on Earth. The most recent eruption of Kīlauea began in December 2024 inside Halemaʻumaʻu, a pit crater located within Kīlauea's summit caldera, with episodic lava fountains and flows currently continuing inside the crater into late 2026. Kīlauea is the second-youngest product of the Hawaiian hotspot and the current eruptive center of the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain. Because it lacks topographic prominence and its activities historically coincided with those of Mauna Loa, Kīlauea was once thought to be a satellite of its much larger neighbor. Kīlauea has a large, fairly recently...

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