Volcanic explosions shut down this national park. It’s about to reopen

For the last decade, a cauldron stewed inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

A giant lake of churning lava, over 500 feet across and hundreds of feet deep, drew visitors from around the planet to the lake’s eerie red glow, visible at night as the sun set beyond Hawaii’s Big Island. Just in April, the burgeoning lava lake overflowed its banks and spilled onto the floor of the volcano’s summit.

But four months later, the scorching lake is gone. Following an onslaught of volcanic quaking and explosions this summer, it drained, completely.

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