Kīlauea’s lower East Rift Zone eruption that destroyed more than 700 homes occurred in 2018.
The eruption began on May 3, 2018, after the Puʻu ʻŌʻō crater collapsed and earthquakes spread through the East Rift Zone. Fissures opened in and near Leilani Estates in Lower Puna, sending lava through residential areas and eventually toward the coast.
Lava from the powerful fissure 8 system reached Kapoho Bay on June 4. It buried roads, subdivisions, beaches, and utilities, while also evaporating Green Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake in Hawaiʻi. The official count of destroyed houses reached 700 on July 9, although later summaries commonly cite roughly 700 or more homes.
The eruption was part of Kīlauea’s much longer East Rift Zone activity, which had begun in 1983, rather than an entirely unrelated volcanic system. Activity declined in August, and the eruption was declared over in December 2018. The event remains one of the most destructive U.S. volcanic eruptions since Mount St. Helens in 1980.