The Kilauea volcano opened up and streamed across Hawaii’s Leilani Estates neighborhood on May 3, 2018. More than 20 fissures have opened on Kilauea’s Lower Rift Zone. Most of these lava flows were small and short-lived.

But for one particular crack in the Earth, Fissure 8, has been steadily generating large fountains of lava that soar tens to hundreds of feet into the air, producing a very large river-like flow that is eating through the landscape, cutting a path to the sea.

Fissure 8 has evaporated Hawaii’s largest lake in a matter of hours and has destroyed hundreds of homes, devastating the communities of Vacationland and Kapoho.