A rare ‘lavanado’ was spotted swirling over the fiery eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano.
The wild scene caught on video captured the moment when hot gasses and dangerous lava were spun together into the air over a freshly formed molten pool.
Lava at the bottom of the vortex could be seen splashing about as the tiny twister ripped across the volcanic rock.
The video by Scott Malis, who recorded the lavanado, shows a funnel that looks similar to a ‘dust devil’ – a common wind phenomenon that’s smaller and less powerful than a tornado.
According to the National Weather Service, dust devils are created by strong surface heating and last for only a few minutes before they fade away.
The one in Malis’ video reportedly lasted for about four minutes during the early morning hours on Hawaii’s ‘Big Island.’
During the fiery scene, lava was seen being shot hundreds of feet into the air of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
The volcanic event lasted for just under 13 hours, with lava fountains erupting from Kilauea’s north and south vents, sending lava onto the crater floor – where the lavanado was spotted.
Scott Malis captured a ‘lavanado,’ a swirling wind funnel over lava, in Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano on February 26
The comparison to a dust devil seems to fit what Malis caught on camera in Hawaii last month.
Typically, these vortices develop when there are clear skies and light winds, when the ground can warm up air temperatures to far above what they usually are just above ground level. In this case, the ground was an erupting volcano.
All of this leads to a very unstable condition, where the heated up air is less dense and lighter than the cooler air in the sky above the volcano.
When the ground gets much warmer (like molten lava) than the air above it, hot air rushes upward and the cooler air moves in to take its place, stirring it all up like a pot of soup – a process called ‘vertical mixing.’
If there’s just the right amount of wind and some turbulence, that rising air can start spinning. When that happens, it forms a small, spinning column of air – a dust devil.
As it swirls, it picks up dirt and rocks (or lava) from the ground, making it visible. Sound familiar?
Kilauea volcano has been steadily erupting since December 2024, with the lavanado marking the 11th event during that time
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologists visited the caldera rim at Kīlauea on February 26 to observe the end of the summit eruption’s eleventh episode, as fountains shut down at both eruptive vents. This photo shows fountaining at the north vent feeding a lava flow spreading east across the crater floor, about 10 minutes before the shutdown
In recent months, people have been flocking to overlook sites inside the national park for views of the eruptions.
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory also hosts a livestream of Kilauea’s eruptions.
However, the new video marks the first time a lavanado has been captured on camera since June 2023, when the US Geological Survey (USGS) released a video of another wind funnel pulling up fresh lava from the Kilauea summit during an eruption.
The Hawaiian volcano has been actively erupting since December 23, 2024, with the February 26 video marking the eleventh eruption during that time.
On March 4, Kilauea erupted for the twelfth time, with giant lava fountains reaching 600 feet into the air. This latest volcanic event in Hawaii lasted 22 hours.
These eruptions have been coming steadily over the last three months, with some coming just a day apart, while others have been separated by nearly two weeks.
Luckily, none of the eruptions in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park have threatened the residents of Hawaii or led to any evacuations.
The longest and most destructive recorded eruption involving Kilauea lasted from January 1983 to April 2018, causing significant property damage.
The eruptions wiped out two towns in 1990 and destroyed one of the island’s famous black sand beaches.
Kilauea overlaps with the eastern side of the largest volcano on Earth, the nearly 14,000-foot-tall Mauna Loa.
This volcano is between 210,000 and 280,000 years-old, but did not grow above sea level until roughly 100,000 years ago.
