The Kīlauea Caldera (Hawaiian: Kaluapele), officially gazetted as Kīlauea Crater, is a

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the str ...

located at the summit of

Kīlauea Kīlauea ( , ) is an active shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands. It is located along the southeastern shore of Hawaii (island), Hawaii Island. The volcano is between 210,000 and 280,000 years old and grew above sea level about 100,000 years ...

, an active

shield volcano A shield volcano is a type of volcano named for its low profile, resembling a shield lying on the ground. It is formed by the eruption of highly fluid (low viscosity) lava, which travels farther and forms thinner flows than the more viscous lava ...

in the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands () are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii in the south to nort ...

. It has an extreme length of , an extreme width of , a

circumference In geometry, the circumference () is the perimeter of a circle or ellipse. The circumference is the arc length of the circle, as if it were opened up and straightened out to a line segment. More generally, the perimeter is the curve length arou ...

of and an area of . It contains

Halemaʻumaʻu Halemaumau (''six syllables: HAH-leh-MAH-oo-MAH-oo'') is a pit crater within the much larger Kīlauea Caldera at the summit of Kīlauea volcano on island of Hawaii (island), Hawaiʻi. The roughly circular crater was before collapses that ro ...

, an active

pit crater A pit crater (also called a subsidence crater or collapse crater) is a depression formed by the sinking or collapse of the surface lying above a void or empty chamber, rather than by the eruption of a volcano or lava vent. Pit craters are found ...

near the caldera's southwestern edge. The walls of the caldera consist of

fault scarp A fault scarp is a small step-like offset of the ground surface in which one side of a fault has shifted vertically in relation to the other. The topographic expression of fault scarps results from the differential erosion of rocks of contrastin ...

s that have formed as a result of down-sinking of the caldera floor. Much of the caldera floor is covered by lava flows erupted since the 19th century. The Kīlauea Caldera and neighboring

Kīlauea Iki Kīlauea Iki is a pit crater next to the main summit caldera of Kīlauea on the island of Hawaiʻi in the Hawaiian Islands. It is known for its eruption in 1959 that started on November 14 and ended on December 20, producing lava fountaining u ...

are circled by Crater Rim Drive, an long paved road that provides access to

Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is a national park of the United States located in Hawaii on the island of Hawaii. The park encompasses two active volcanoes: Kīlauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, and Mauna Loa, the world's largest s ...

. The

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) is an agency of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and one of five volcano observatories operating under the USGS Volcano Hazards Program. Based in Hilo, Hawaii on the Island of Hawaii, the obser ...

was established on the rim of the Kīlauea Caldera in 1912. Outside of Halemaʻumaʻu, eruptions from the Kīlauea Caldera have taken place in 1982, 1975, 1974, 1971, 1921, 1919, 1918, and possibly in 1820 and

1790 Events January–March * January 8 – United States President George Washington gives the first State of the Union address, in New York City. * January 11 – The 11 minor states of the Austrian Netherlands, which took pa ...

References

Kīlauea Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park Calderas of Hawaii Holocene calderas {{Hawaii-geo-stub

See also

References