The Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island erupted recently, according to an advisory from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
About Kilauea Volcano:
- It is the youngest and most active Hawaiian shield volcano, located on the southern part of the Island of Hawai’i, known as Big Island.
- It is near-constantly erupting from vents either on its summit (caldera) or on the rift zones.
- Kilauea has a large summit caldera with a central crater, Halemaumau, which is according to Hawaiian legends the home of the fire goddess Pele.
- Until 1924, it contained a lava lake.
What is a Shield Volcano?
- Shield volcanoes are a type of volcano that tend to erupt basalt lava, a type of lava that is very fluid when erupted.
- Although shield volcanoes are the largest volcanoes on Earth, they do not form soaring mountains with conical peaks like composite volcanoes. Instead, they are broad volcanoes with gentle slopes.
- Eruptions at shield volcanoes are only explosive if water somehow gets into the vent, otherwise they are characterized by low-explosivity fountaining those forms cinder cones and spatter cones at the vent.
- The Hawaiian shield volcanoes are the most famous examples.