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Special Event
Event
After Dark in the Park - Sixty Years Later: 1959 Eruption of Kīlauea Iki and its Impacts on Volcanology
This event has already occurred. This page is provided for reference only.
Fee:
Free.Location:
Kīlauea Visitor CenterDates & Times
Date:
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Time:
7:00 PM
Duration:
1 hour
Type of Event
Campfire/Evening Program
Description
Sixty Years Later: 1959 eruption of Kīlauea Iki and its Impacts on Volcanology.
Just after 8 p.m. on November 14, 1959, a fissure erupted on the south wall of Kīlauea Iki Crater. Within a day, multiple vents along the fissure had consolidated into one main vent. Over the next five weeks, lava fountains gushed from the vent in 17 separate episodes, flooding the crater with a lava lake about 135 m (440 ft) deep. Lava fragments falling from the high fountains also formed a cinder-and-spatter cone named Puʻu Puaʻi (gushing hill) on the rim of Kīlauea Iki. Three days before the eruption ended on December 20, 1959, lava blasted 580 m (1,900 ft) above the vent—the highest lava fountain ever measured in Hawaiʻi. Join Don Swanson, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientist emeritus, as he talks about this remarkable eruption and how it stands apart from all eruptive activity at Kīlauea since then.
Part of Hawai‘i Volcanoes’ ongoing After Dark in the Park series, sponsored by the Friends of Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.
Free (park entrance fees apply)
Reservation or Registration: No
Contact Information
Division of Interpretation808-985-6011
Image Gallery
USGS Photo
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