UPDATE (9:50 p.m.) – Hawaii County Civil Defense reported the section of Pahoa-Pohoiki Road between Highway 132 (Kapoho Road) and Leilani Ave. is closed in both directions due to road damage. Detours through Highway 132 and Leilani Ave. are in place.

(BIVN) – Videographer Mick Kalber returned to the sky above Puʻu ʻŌʻō on Wednesday for another look at the changes to the active vent on East Rift Zone of Kīlauea Volcano. Flying aboard Paradise Helicopters for the second time in two days, Kalber was able to capture a different look at vent, which is now a gaping hole hundreds of feet deep.

“The complete collapse of the active vent on Kilauea’s east rift zone last Monday sent an amazing ash plume skyward,” Kalber wrote on Wednesday, “and blanketed a three mile long swath of the current eruption in red dust… 61G looks like Mars! Yesterday, in very inclement weather, we managed some shots of the ash plume roiling away… today, under stunningly beautiful skies, we were able to see inside the vent. Hundreds of feet deep, we saw no lava in the vent at all… just cinders and rubble.”

“Additionally, a half-mile long line of steamy fissures runs west from the vent,” Kalber added, “eerily reminiscent of the fissure eruption seven years ago.”

At 7:23 p.m. HST Wednesday evening, the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory issued a new status report: