Hawaii’s famed Kilauea volcano has been dazzling onlookers with spectacular weekly lava displays since late last year, turning its summit crater into a fiery stage for residents, tourists, and online viewers around the globe.

On Tuesday, Kilauea recorded its 32nd eruption episode since December, with scientists confirming that all of the events are linked to the same ongoing eruption. The molten rock has been safely contained within the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater inside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, ensuring no threat to surrounding homes or infrastructure.

Visitors to the park have been able to witness the fiery spectacle firsthand, while thousands more follow the action via popular U.S. Geological Survey livestreams, which provide three camera angles of the glowing fountains.

Ken Hon, scientist-in-charge at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, explained the process fueling the eruptions: magma from deep inside the Earth rises into a lower chamber beneath Halemaʻumaʻu at a rate of about 3.8 cubic meters per second, inflating it like a balloon. This in turn forces magma upward into an upper chamber and eventually to the surface through narrow vents.

“The result,” Hon said, “is dramatic fountains of lava that can soar over 1,000 feet into the sky.”

The explosive force comes from gases trapped within the rising magma. Each new surge eventually builds up enough pressure to blow past older, degassed magma left from the prior eruption, creating a champagne-cork effect that blasts molten rock high above the crater.

This recurring fountain activity is rare in Kilauea’s long eruptive history. It is only the fourth time in 200 years that the volcano has produced repeated episodes of high lava fountains. The most recent comparable pattern was in 1983, when Kilauea unleashed 44 such eruptions over three years, though those events occurred in remote areas far from public view.

Today, however, the eruptions are drawing both scientific interest and global fascination. With each fiery burst, Kilauea continues to remind the world of its place as one of Earth’s most active and spectacular volcanoes. (ILKHA)