Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.</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 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>It might seem like a lava flow would pose less of a threat once it reaches the ocean, but lava's arrival at the waterline introduces an entirely new danger.Emergency officials in Hawaii are now warning the public about laze , the lava haze that forms when hot lava comes into direct contact with seawater. The resulting reaction, which essentially causes ocean water to boil to dryness , sends hydrochloric acid, steam and small glass particles shooting into the air.Because the plumes of laze travel with the wind, they can threaten those both landside and out on the water.Direct contact with laze can result in lung damage as well as eye and skin irritation, and the dangerous plumes were blamed for two deaths in 2000.Acid rain resulting from the plume can also be dangerous due to its high acidity, which can be as corrosive as dilute battery acid, according to the United States Geological Survey In Hawaii, the U.S. Coast Guard is currently monitoring an area near MacKenzie State Recreation Area where lava is flowing into the ocean. Local emergency officials have asked the public to avoid the area and have imposed boating restrictions in the vicinity of the laze plumes.</s>Is it possible to stop a lava flow? As AccuWeather points out, many have tried in the past.The U.S. Air Force tried to bomb the lava tubes at Mauna Loa in 1935. Iceland tried to cool a lava flow with frigid cold seawater in 1973, and people also tried building barriers to divert the flow of the lava from Italy's Mount Etna in 1983.While these are creative ways to slow down the flow, the United States Geological Survey says it's ultimately a losing battle. The best bet is to work proactively to protect communities potentially in the path of a lava flow.</s>A drone and a cellphone flashlight helped first responders rescue a Hawaii man trapped in his home by a fast-moving lava flow from the erupting Kilauea volcano.On the evening of May 27, United States Geological Survey scientists deployed a drone to survey a new outbreak of lava on Luana Street in the lava-besieged Leilani Estates subdivision, where destroyed dozens of homes have been destroyed since the Kilauea eruption began in early May.As they were preparing to fly, the team received word that a man had become trapped nearby. The team, which had been coordinating with local emergency officials, flew the drone to the vicinity of the man's home, and first responders instructed him to follow the drone to safety.The man used the flashlight on his cellphone to signal his location, and rescuers on the ground eventually met up with the man in the jungle behind his home.In drone footage released by the USGS, the man can be seen shining his flashlight into the air as several first responders with flashlights approach him. Just feet away, smoke plumes from the fast-moving lava flow, which has set trees and other vegetation ablaze as it tears down the street.After the man was evacuated to safety, the USGS team continued to survey the lava flow for several more hours and relay important information to other crews on the ground.</s>Since the Kilauea volcanic eruption began on May 3, it's spewed 113.5 million cubic meters of lava onto Hawaii's Big Island, according to an estimate from the United States Geological Survey.That amount of lava could fill 45,400 Olympic-sized swimming pools and more than 11 million dump trucks, and it could cover Manhattan Island to a depth of more than six feet.While that might seem like a lot, the USGS pointed out that it's only half of the lava estimated to have erupted from Mauna Loa in 1984.To date, the lava has destroyed more than 600 homes. It's covered more than 5,000 acres and is up to 20 feet deep in some places. There's no way to know when the eruption will end or if more lava-spewing vents will open, according to USGS scientists.</s>Ever wondered what it's like to soar over the summit of an active volcano as ash plumes thousands of feet into the air?That's exactly what scientists with the United States Geological Survey got to experience as they sent a drone-mounted camera to survey the summit of Kilauea in Hawaii. Three weeks into the volcano's eruption, scientists said the summit is still too dangerous to survey on foot.According to the USGS, an average of two large explosions a day are sending ash as high as 10,000 feet above sea level, though smaller emissions of ash occur more often.There are currently more than 20 fissures associated with Kilauea, and they've fountained lava that has poured across the Hawaiian landscape and destroyed 41 homes and dozens of other structures. Thousands of residents have been impacted by evacuation orders as lava continues to flow, entering the ocean at three different points as of May 26.But the threat isn't over once the lava flows reach the ocean; contact with ocean water causes a dangerous lava-haze phenomena known as ' laze ' that sends acid- and glass-laced steam shooting into the air, creating yet another hazard for those downwind of the lava's ocean entry point.
Footage from the United States Geological Survey shows lava activity at Kīlauea slowing down.