The quiet volcano gets explosive

The world's great drive-in volcano showed its darker side this week—and not for the first time.Kīlauea is known for its calm eruptions and flows, which visitors often can approach close enough to feel the heat. But as the week's activities showed, the volcano also has a history of violence, of catastrophic explosions capable of destroying property and taking lives.Earlier, the firepit within the Kīlauea began producing prodigious amounts of nasty fumes.

On March 19, 2008, a blast just before 3 a.m. strewed rocks and gravel over an estimated 75 acres. It followed several days of concerns over toxic sulfur dioxide gas emissions from the volcano, including the discussion that Volcano Village might need to be evacuated if gas clouds moved in its direction.Parts of Crater Rim Drive continued to be closed due to danger from the gas.

and the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said further explosions—driven by steam or underground gas—were possible.Elevated toxic gas levels continued after the explosions, and parts of the region remained closed to human activity several days after the explosion.For many folks, the violence of the volcano seemed uncharacteristic, but it certainly was not unheard-of.In its multi-day events of May 1924.

the Halema'uma'u firepit rumbled and roared, its activity punctuated by powerful blasts that threw rocks from the size of sand grains to small cars. They landed, sizzling in the rain, hundreds and occasionally thousands of feet from the edge of the pit. Showers of yellow mud fell 25 miles away.That event ended in a spectacular eruption. During the events, one observer, a photographer, was killed by rocks and hot mud.