Just before Christmas, Hawaiʻi’s volcano goddess Pele returned to her legendary home inside Halemaʻumaʻu with a series of high fountain events that have dazzled Big Island residents, visitors, and volcano watchers all over the world. Here’s a representative photo log of those marvels from the past five months (and some cool video links). As of this writing in mid-May, the on-and-off eruption—22 episodes punctuated by numerous brief pauses—continues! Fortunately, all of this has occurred within Kilauea’s summit crater inside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park with no significant activity noted along its rift zones . . . so far.
All photos by Tom Peek unless otherwise credited.
Kilauea erupts inside Halemaʻumaʻu on December 23, 2024, the beginning of a months-long eruption with numerous spectacular episodes.
Pele returns to Halemaʻumaʻu during the holidays . . .
After three months of quiet following Kilauea’s mid-September east rift eruption at Napau Crater (photos included in my previous blog), Pele returned to the volcano’s summit at 2:20 a.m. on December 23, 2024. Fissures opened up on the northwest edge of Halemaʻumaʻu’s frozen lava lake, sending up fiery fountains 250-300 feet high. By the time Catherine and I arrived at the caldera rim, around 7:30 a.m., the five-hour-old fountains were still 150 feet tall (above photo)!
People gathered on the rim of Kaluapele (Kilauea caldera) to experience the morning eruption on December 23, 2024. At that vantage point, about a mile away, the fountains sounded like jet aircraft.
The giant gas plume from Halemaʻumaʻu rose above Highway 11 near Volcano Village on the afternoon of December 23. A short while later, the eruption paused, but people continued to throng the park to view the glowing molten lava lake that evening and throughout the night.
Tom at the lava lake on the night of December 23 during the first pause between fountaining events. (Photo by Catherine Robbins.)
BY THE WAY . . .
A NEW EDITION OF DAUGHTERS OF FIRE IS NOW AVAILABLE AT BOOKSTORES AND ONLINE (PUBLISHED BY ALL NIGHT BOOKS).
The novel includes an illustrated map and 9 original pen-and-ink drawings by John D. Dawson, a Preface to the New Edition, and a Reading Group Guide. The book is also available in all e-book formats. The debut book signing is at Kona Stories on July 8.
The eruption resumes on Christmas Eve day!
After a 16-hour pause, Pele returned to the summit at 8:00 a.m. on December 24—again with fiery fountains!—and continued her spectacular show through Christmas morning. To avoid the crowds streaming into the national park, Catherine and I waited until 4:00 a.m. to observe the latest spectacle and stayed, transfixed, through sunrise.
Episode 2 continued Christmas morning, seen here from the south side of Kaluapele, with Mauna Loa catching the first light of the day.
Artist and former eruption ranger Catherine Robbins aglow in the Christmas morning eruption.
It’s always a delight to watch these eruptions with my sweetheart and wife Catherine Robbins, a former eruption ranger at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. She’s now a longtime artist whose oil paintings are collected worldwide. A kindred spirit—and inseparable from nature—Catherine has trekked Hawaiʻi Island’s volcanoes with me for thirty years! Our first date was high up on Mauna Loa and our second rendezvous was a strenuous nighttime hike to a glowing skylight above an active lava tube on the Kalapana Coast.
Episode 3 stretched into the new year!
After a one-day pause, Kilauea erupted again on December 26 and continued fountaining for more than a week. Catherine and I observed this from the caldera rim twice, once at night and a second time in the wee hours of New Year’s Day morning. Little did we know—or even imagine—that numerous eruption episodes were ahead, stretching well into 2025 with constantly changing dynamics . . . and even higher fountains!
The beginning of the new year, January 1, 2025. (Photo by Catherine Robbins.)
The New Year’s Day fountains shortly after dawn, this time with the south vent the most active.
But the eruption was far from over, with many episodes ahead . . .
As the new year proceeded, the eruption continued for months on end, with numerous episodes of fountaining and other eruptive activity, all from those same two vents. Month by month the spatter cones grew taller and the lava lake deepened. The crowds grew too, including islanders, visitors, internet livestreamers, and professional photographers and videographers. During one of those spectacular episodes, on January 16, light Kona winds were blowing (rather than the usual trade winds from the east), showering the national park and Volcano Village with loads of tephra, including golden glassy strands of Pele’s Hair!
Catherine and I were greeted by Pele’s glow as we drove through the entrance station of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park at 4:00 a.m. on January 16. (Photo by Catherine Robbins.)
Heavy bands of volcanic fumes crisscrossed the predawn view of Mauna Loa on January 16. (Photo by Catherine Robbins.)
Kona winds deposited clumps of Pele’s hair—glassy strands of fine tephra—near the Kilauea Visitor Center inside the national park. (Photo by Catherine Robbins.)
Among the photographers gathered on January 16 was this young woman with an interesting companion on her back (left) and renowned Hawaiʻi photographer Bruce Omori (right).
Four more months of marvels . . . and it’s not over yet!
Instead of the eruptions subsiding over time, as we expected, they grew more frequent—and spectacular. By springtime, it seemed like Kilauea was erupting about once a week! And always from one or the other of those same two vents, or from both. For volcano lovers, 2025 was turning into a red-letter year. Indeed, islanders had not seen this kind of episodic fountaining since the early years (1983-1986) of the famous Puʻu Oʻo eruption downslope on the volcano’s East Rift.
Massive lava flows poured out onto the lava lake from fountains in both vents on the night of February 3, 2025. (Photo by Catherine Robbins.)
Catherine and a professional videographer from the continent watched the February 19 eruption from a spot on Kaluapele’s east rim. That beacon in the west is Jupiter about to set over Mauna Loa.
Double fountains flood the lava lake at dusk on March 4, 2025 during the eruption’s 12th episode.
Pilgrims on the north rim of Kaluapele on March 4, 2025.
Some of the tallest fountains of the months-long eruption occurred during Episode 16 on April 1. This fountain, viewed from the caldera’s south rim was at least 800 feet tall! South winds again blew tephra into the park and Volcano Village that day.
On April 1, 2025, awestruck crowds congregated at the park’s viewing area on the south rim of Kaluapele.
Professional filmmaker and photographer Lance Page livestreamed the April 1 eruption. A local islander from South Kona, Lance has broadcast most, if not all, of this eruption’s episodes to his growing audience of volcano enthusiasts.
Watch this BIG ISLAND VIDEO NEWS report on the Episode 16 eruption (published April 3, 2025)
During Episode 18, Molten rivers poured onto Halemaʻumaʻu’s lava lake on April 22, 2025 (photo by Catherine Robbins).
A roiling lava dome overflows the north vent on the night of May 1 at the beginning of Episode 19.
On May 1 high fountains were proceeded by hydrogen “flaming,” spattering, and then roiling lava domes which filled the north vent and then overflowed, giving it the appearance of a luminescent cauldron of molten stew (pictured above). About ten minutes after I took that photo, the first fountains began (below).
Like a glowing octopus, long arms stretching across the crater floor, Pele’s beauty mesmerized me on May 1, 2025.
Kilauea’s 21st episode continued the eruption’s fifth month of marvels on May 11, 2025, this time with a glowing perched pond of lava in the middle of the lake.
Watch this BIG ISLAND VIDEO NEWS report on the Episode 21 eruption (published May 12, 2024)
A magical respite in a troubled time . . .
What Kilauea has in store for us this summer is anyone’s guess. But one thing seems certain to me. The beauty and power of these multiple eruptions bring a welcome counterpoint to the current chaos in the world. They’re also a reminder that our planet sets its own terms of radical change as it evolves and that people continue to find solace in its marvels and a broader perspective in its wild, often enchanting dynamics.
Tom Peek