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COURTESY HAWAIIAN VOLCANO OBSERVATORY
This morning, another section of the wall of Kilauea’s volcano collapsed and caused a small explosion.
For the second time in a week, a large section of a wall along Kilauea volcano’s Halemaumau Crater collapsed, causing a small explosion of lava and boulders.
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory released video of Friday’s rockfall in the summit lava lake captured by a webcamera on the crater rim.
The rocks falling into the lava lake triggered a small explosion that bombarded the rim of Halemaumau Crater with fragments of molten lava.
The event happened around 6:58 a.m. Friday. At the time, the lake level ws abou 44 feet below the crater floor and had been fluctuating as the volcano began a period of deflation.
On Nov. 28 around 11:30 a.m., a slab of the wall collapsed and triggered a spectacular blast cloud and hurling lava and boulders hundreds of feet into the air.
The lake was measured at 31 feet below the adjacent floor of the crater at that time.
A crowd of about 200 visitors was on scene that day to witness the dramatic collapse and explosion.
Two other rockfall collapses and explosions happened in October.
The rockfalls and explosions, which can happen without warning, are why the area on the crater rim above the lava lake remains closed to the public, the observatory said.
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