Kīlauea has entered its second year of episodic activity after reawakening in December 2024. Since then, the Hawaiian volcano has gone through dozens of bouts of lava fountaining, each lasting several hours to several days.
Activity ramped up once again on March 10, 2026, for episode 43 of the eruption. From approximately 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time that day, lava spewed from two active vents on the southwest side of Halema‘uma‘u Crater, adding to the ever-thickening layer of fresh basaltic rock in the summit caldera. The flareup also featured the highest lava fountains of the current eruption, estimated at 1,770 feet (540 meters). Meanwhile, ash and other airborne debris fell on communities up to 50 miles (80 kilometers) away.
About 4 hours after fountaining subsided, the Landsat 9 satellite passed over the Island of Hawai‘i. This image shows shortwave infrared and near-infrared data, acquired with the satellite’s OLI (Operational Land Imager) at 10:20 p.m. local time on March 10 (08:20 Universal Time on March 11), revealing heat emanating from the still-sizzling lava. That information is layered over a composite of daytime Landsat images and a digital elevation model.
An estimated 16 million cubic yards (12 million cubic meters) of lava erupted during the episode, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO), bringing the total volume erupted across all episodes since December 2024 to close to 325 million cubic yards (250 million cubic meters). Over the same period, the depth of lava in the crater has increased by about 300 feet (90 meters).
While lava remained confined to the summit area, other erupted material traveled much farther. Images captured by satellites orbiting over the area during the daytime showed a volcanic plume drifting northeast from the vents. Volcanic ga …