Kilauea’s biggest lava fountain ever buries roads and overlooks at a U.S. national park

Kilauea erupts again, breaks its own record

Kilauea’s 43rd eruption episode roared to life the morning of March 10, 2026, sending lava fountains higher than anything this eruption cycle has produced.

The south vent inside Halema’uma’u crater shot a fountain to 1,770 feet, a new record for this eruption. The north vent hit over 1,400 feet.

Both vents went quiet about nine hours later at 6:21 p.m. No injuries were reported.

Tephra buries the park up to a foot deep

Volcanic fallout buried parts of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park under up to a foot of tephra, the mix of ash, rock chunks, and volcanic glass that a volcano blasts into the air.

The Uekahuna overlook, the former Jaggar Museum site, took the worst of it, with 4 to 7 inches piling up across the area and deposits reaching a foot deep in the parking lot.

The overlook and parking lot stayed closed for days while crews worked to clear the debris.

Military camp gets hit hard too

Kilauea Military Camp, which houses the temporary National Park Service visitor center, got about 2 inches of tephra.

Individual chunks as large as 4 to 5 inches across started falling at the camp around 10:20 a.m. The ground, including grassy areas near the camp flagpole, disappeared under a layer of gray volcanic rock.

Workers used heavy equipment and hand tools to dig out the roads and walkways inside the camp.

Tephra is more than a mess to clean up

Tephra is not just dirty. The ash and glass fibers irritate skin, eyes, and lungs, and health officials advised people to wear masks, eye protection, and gloves when cleaning it up.

One less obvious danger: the many Big Island residents who collect rainwater from their rooftops. Tephra settles on roofs and can wash fluoride and other contaminants into catchment tanks when rain comes.

Officials urged residents to disconnect downspouts before tephra falls and cover storage tanks.

Highway 11 shuts down for 16 miles

Falling tephra forced the closure of a 16-mile stretch of Highway 11, a key route around the Big Island, at about 11:10 a.m. The debris covered the road markings and made the surfaces slippery.

Hawaii Department of Transportation crews moved in with heavy equipment to clear the road.

The highway reopened by the morning of March 11, though officials warned small particles could still be kicked up by wind and traffic.

Hawaii County opened an emergency shelter at Ka’u District Gym in Pahala for people cut off by the closure.

Rangers clear the park as alert level rises

Park rangers evacuated visitors from the summit area as the eruption intensified.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park closed entirely by about 11:20 a.m. The U.S. Geological Survey raised Kilauea’s alert level from Watch to Warning at 10:54 a.m. because of hazards to nearby communities and air traffic.

The National Weather Service issued an ashfall warning at 11:29 a.m. Crater Rim Drive West reopened March 11, with other sections of the park following as crews finished clearing them.

Ash cloud climbs above 30,000 feet

The twin fountains produced a massive plume of ash, gas, and heat that climbed to over 30,000 feet above sea level by 11:30 a.m. Light southwest winds pushed the plume north and east, which is not the usual direction.

Trade winds normally send material to the southwest, so this shift sent the fallout over communities that do not typically get hit. At peak output, the volcano pumped out roughly 1,000 cubic yards of lava per second.

Volcano debris reaches communities miles away

The Volcano Golf Course community, just northeast of the vents, got some of the worst fallout, with tephra chunks several inches wide blanketing the area.

Volcano Village, about 2 miles east of the park, received significant fallout with pieces up to a couple of inches across.

Ash and Pele’s hair, thin strands of volcanic glass, reached Hilo, 30 miles away, by around 1 p.m. Residents there described the sun looking red and hazy through the volcanic gases overhead.

Catchment water needs attention after tephra

Many Big Island residents rely on rooftop rainwater catchment, and tephra deposits on roofs can contaminate that water.

The main concern is fluoride, which coats tephra particles and dissolves into rainwater when it rains.

After a similar episode in January, roof runoff before cleaning measured 7 to 10 parts per million, while a cleaned roof produced only about 1.5 parts per million, well below the EPA limit of 4.0 parts per million.

Clearing tephra from rooftops quickly makes a real difference.

Episode 43 pushes eruption totals higher

Episode 43 produced an estimated 16 million cubic yards of lava, covering about half of the Halema’uma’u crater floor.

The total lava volume since this eruption cycle began in December 2024 now sits near 325 million cubic yards.

Kilauea has now had 43 fountaining episodes since Dec. 23, 2024, putting it close to the record of 44 set by the Pu’u ‘O’o eruption.

Kilauea’s all-time fountain height record still belongs to the 1959 Kilauea Iki eruption, which reached roughly 1,900 feet.

Episode 44 could arrive by early April

USGS models suggest episode 44 could begin between roughly March 30 and April 8, though the window could shift. Summit inflation recorded after episode 43 ended points to another fountaining episode on the way.

No unusual activity has turned up along Kilauea’s East Rift Zone or Southwest Rift Zone, and all lava has stayed inside the summit caldera. Tephra and volcanic gas remain ongoing hazards for nearby communities.

Visitors should check the National Park Service website for current conditions before heading to the park.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

Read more from this brand:

• When Hawaii’s Mount Kilauea’s explosive fury preserved death’s footprints in time
• Why a scientist quit MIT to live on an active volcano in Hawaii
• “Mad Max goes to Hawaii”: The village built on Kilauea’s fresh lava