Perhaps Pele, the goddess of Hawaii’s volcanoes, is jealous of all the recent publicity for the state’s revived tourism industry based on Covid testing, or perhaps she’s restive for other reasons, but this week all the news from Hawaii is sure to be focused on her.
Kilauea, one of the two huge shield volcanoes on Hawaii’s Big Island began erupting late Sunday, about an hour after residents began reporting an earthquake, which registered 4.4 on the Richter scale.
So far, no significant damage to buildings is expected, although residents and visitors were warned of the danger of falling ash in a wide area; the ash and gases produced by the eruption can irritate or damage eyes and lungs. The warnings were issued for areas as far away as Honolulu.
The volcano, part of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, filled a crater that had become a water lake with a fresh load of lava. When it last erupted in 2018, the activity went on for months, destroyed 700 homes and buried an area half the size of Manhattan under up to 80 feet of lava.
