Puʻu ʻŌʻō

Puu Ōō (also spelled Pu‘u‘ō‘ō, and often written Puu Oo, ˈpuʔu ˈʔoːʔoː, ) is a volcanic cone on the eastern rift zone of Kīlauea volcano in the Hawaiian Islands. The eruption that created Puu Ōō began on January 3, 1983, and continued nearly continuously until April 30, 2018, making it the longest-lived rift-zone eruption of the last two centuries. By January 2005, of magma covered an area of more than and added of land to the southeast coast of Hawaii. The eruption claimed at least 189 buildings and of highways, as well as a church, a store, the Wahaula Visitor Center, and many ancient Hawaiian sites, including the Wahaula heiau. The coastal highway has been closed since 1987, as parts of the road have been buried under lava up to thick. The hill was initially nicknamed "Puu O" by volcanologists, as its position when marked on a map of the area coincided with an "o" in "Lava flow of 1965". Later, the elders of the village of Kalapana were asked to name the new hill, and chose Puʻu ʻŌʻō, meaning hill of the digging stick. The name is also often translated as "Hill of the Ōō Bird". In 2021, the Hawaiʻi Board of Geographic Names updated the spelling of the cone as Pu‘u‘ō‘ō for consistency with the board's spelling guidelines. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory began following the new recommended naming convention shortly thereafter. The Puu Ōō eruption began when fissures split the ground in the remote rainforest of the eastern rift zone, on January 3, 1983. By June 1983, the activity had strengthened and localized to the Puu Ōō vent. Over the next three years, 44 eruptive episodes with lava fountains as high as stopped traffic at points across east Hawaii. The fallout of cinder and spatter from the towering lava fountains built a cone high. In July 1986, the conduit feeding magma to Puu Ōō ruptured, and the eruption abruptly shifted downrift to form the Kūpaianahā vent. With the new vent came a new style of eruption: continuous, quiet effusion from a lava lake replaced the episodic high fountaining.