A series of firey and seismic activities on the Big Island have geologists raising some alerts.
U.S. Geological Survey scientists at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory report a fountain of fire at Kilauea near Napau Crater that began Saturday afternoon. That event was nearly simultaneous to a floor collapse at the Pu'u 'O'o Crater that happened just after 2 p.m. Saturday.
The USGS webcam on the rim of Halea'uma'u has been recording a series of wall collapses in the past three days. That prompted scientists to take a closer aerial look.
The volcano alert watch is now a warning, with a code red for all aircraft.
As a precaution, the Chain of Crater Road has been closed. The coastal and east rift campsites are also closed to visitors.
A relatively young pit crater, Napau Crater is about 1 km in diameter and only 30 m deep. Ten eruptions have occurred from the crater in the past 200 years, according to the USGS. During the most recent eruption in January 1997, fissures in and around the crater erupted about 300,000 cubic meters of lava, which partly covered the crater floor.
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