HONOLULU (AP) 鈥� Hawaii's Kilauea began erupting inside its summit crater Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, less than one month after the volcano and its larger neighbor Mauna Loa stopped releasing lava.
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory detected a glow in webcam images indicating Kilauea had begun erupting inside Halemaumau crater at the volcano's summit caldera, the agency said.
Kilauea鈥檚 summit is inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and away from residential communities.
Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey raised the alert level for Kilauea due to signs that magma was moving below the summit surface, an indication that the volcano might erupt.
Kilauea is one of the world's most active volcanoes. It last erupted for 16 months starting in September 2021. For about two weeks starting Nov. 27, Hawaii had two volcanoes spewing lava side by side when Mauna Loa . Both volcanoes .
During the twin eruption, visitors to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park were able to see lava from both eruptions at the same time.
鈥淚t was a beautiful eruption, and lots of people got to see it, and it didn鈥檛 take out any major infrastructure and most importantly, it didn鈥檛 affect anybody鈥檚 life,鈥� said Ken Hon, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory鈥檚 scientist in charge.
Mauna Loa lava didn鈥檛 pose a threat to any communities, but got within 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers) of a of the island. A destroyed more than 700 residences.
The observatory planned to continue monitoring the volcanoes for signs of renewed activity. Hon previously said there is generally a three-month 鈥渃ooling off鈥� period before scientists consider an eruption to be complete.
It was unclear what connection there could be to the volcanoes stopping their eruptions around the same time. The volcanoes can be seen at the same time from multiple spots in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park near Kilauea鈥檚 caldera.
Scientists planned to look at data to study the relationship between the two volcanoes, Hon previously said.
For Native Hawaiians, volcanic eruptions have deep . During Mauna Loa鈥檚 eruption, many Hawaiians took part in cultural traditions, such as singing, chanting and dancing to honor Pele, the deity of volcanoes and fire, and leaving offerings known as 鈥渉ookupu.鈥�
Audrey Mcavoy, The Associated Press
