Transcript: Stormy Seas

Narrator: The lava has come far. From its violent release, down across the fields. Nothing could stop it – except the one force that is its measure... ...The sea.

Matt Patrick: What we have here are explosions at the ocean entry building a littoral cone -- littoral basically means coast.

Narrator: When water and lava get trapped together in a tube, steam pressure builds – then explodes...

Now, after seven months, the tube from one of the new vents, “Fissure D,” has at last reached the sea.

Kilauea’s shoreline is today a battle zone.

The lava has been well insulated on its journey here from the cone, so it’s lost little heat. Now 2000 degree molten rock meets 80 degree water. A volatile mix.

The steam also creates waterspouts – miniature tornadoes that can tower over 200 feet.

This is a place to avoid.