Crater Wall Collapsing Into Lava Lake Creates A Beautiful Explosion [Gallery]
Kablooey

Last week, we showed you what happens when a rock falls into a lava lake. But that only raises the question, what happens when more rocks fall into a lava lake? Kilauea is here to sate your curiosity.
The Hawaiian volcano, whose lava flows disrupted the life of a town just a few months ago, is now capturing attention for its lava spurting out in a different location–its summit. In the middle of Halema’uma’u Crater, a lava lake has been steadily rising since April 22, spilling out onto the crater floor last week.
That’s exciting enough, but on Sunday, part of the crater wall managed a perfect slam dunk into the lava lake, throwing fist sized globs of lava 280 feet in the air and creating an impressive plume of ash. Check out the gallery above for pictures of the explosion and lava lake.

Lava Lake

Crater Explained

Explosion

Frame-by-Frame

Lava Lake

Live Lava Lake