Kīlauea summit eruption began 2 weeks ago within Halema‘uma‘u crater

Last night, January 3, at approximately 9:30 p.m. HST marked two weeks since the Kīlauea summit eruption began within Halema‘uma‘u crater (December 20). In the first several hours of the eruption, three fissures opened on the wall of Halema‘uma‘u crater and cascading lava boiled away the water lake—replacing it with a growing lava lake. This F1cam thermal webcam comparison shows two images from 7:00 a.m. HST on December 21 (left) and January 4 (right). The lava lake depth has risen by approximately 102 m (335 ft) between the morning of December 21 (left) measured at about 88 m (289 ft) and last night measured at about 190 m (623 ft). The central and northern vents (center left) have both been drowned by the rising lava lake and only the western vent (lower center) remains active. Note the lava island floating within the lava lake in both images. USGS thermal webcam images.