Last spring, Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano began its most destructive eruption in recorded history. On May 2, as its underlying magma supply headed to the mountain’s lower east rift zone, a lava lake within the Halema’uma’u summit crater that had been there for 10 years began to rapidly drain. A week later, this pool of molten fury had vanished from sight.

Now, long after the last embers of that eruption faded, the lake is being replaced by water that is likely rising from below.

A single green pool was spotted at the base of the gargantuan crater in late July. As of now, there are three pools, each growing in size and likely to coalesce. Only time will tell, but it’s possible that we are witnessing the birth of a full-blown crater lake in a pit once ravaged by fire.

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Some Hawaiian oral histories may suggest that water was present in Halema’uma’u around the year 1500, and again around 1650, says Don Swanson, scientist emeritus at the United States Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. But written observations of the summit crater only go back to 1823, so this is the first time it can be definitively said to contain water in the last couple of centuries.