Since the eruption of the Kilauea volcano May 3 on the Big Island, it’s belched out about 250 million cubic meters of lava, making it one of the largest eruptions in decades in Hawaii.
“It’s nothing like what we’ve witnessed in recent history,” said Wendy Stovall, a volcanologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. It’s topped big Kilauea eruptions in 1955 and 1960 and is bigger than the Mauna Loa eruption of 1984.
The amount of lava would fill about 100,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.
Kilauea has erupted continuously since May 3, flinging out lava and ash, destroying 577 homes and forcing over 2,000 people to evacuate.
Some good news came out Wednesday: A larger explosion doesn’t appear likely anymore. “Right now, we don’t anticipate that occurring,” Stovall said.