This page shows some videos that I made from the USGS website related to Kilauea’s volcanic activity in Hawaii since the eruption of renewed vigor in December 2024. There are 3 webcams that the USGS puts on their website and I make screen recordings of some events, as they happen, and then manipulate these videos to trim or speed-up the events to show better select features of interest. Note that the cameras are manipulated in real-time to display features of interest by USGS staff and I have no control over them. Sometimes there are telephoto views of details of the eruption vents, while other times the eruption “fountain” is so high that a wide field of view is needed to capture the entire fountain.

One high fountaining event on May 26 2025 is below. Some of these events reach about 300-400m (roughly 1200 ft) above the surface. The date and time is in the upper right corner. Note that the ejected material (called “tephra”) cools and it rises and then descends and is mostly not glowing when it hits the surface. Of course, it is still very hot, but it is solid enough so that when it hits the surface it breaks apart and creates the gray dust clouds shown here.

Nighttime views of any volcanic eruption are more spectacular than daytime views since the glow from lava is much more obvious at night. An example is below.

Below is a real-time (actual speed) video of overflowing lava from the main Kilauea vent on Sept 30 2025. The date and time is in the upper right corner of the video.

A much speeded up video of about 90 minutes of overflowing lava from the main vent (termed “gas pistoning”) is below. The overflow events occur approximately every 8 – 10 minutes.

A USGS video of similar gas-pistoning events, from a more overhead perspective, is shown below (recorded from their website).