First time since 1974, Kilauea region volcano in Hawaii erupts

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupted to life early Monday morning with lava oozing out of the ground and causing the sky to glow eerily orange.

The eruption began around 12:30 a.m. HST on Monday, June 3, in a region that hasn’t erupted since December of 1974. The eruption nearly 50 years ago was short-lived, only lasting around six hours.

“At this time, it is not possible to say how long the eruption will last,” the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) said in a statement on Monday. The agency also upgraded the volcano alert level from a watch to a warning.

Additionally, there have been 92 earthquakes of at least magnitude 2.5 around the Big Island of Hawaii from Sunday morning through Monday morning, according to the USGS.