Hawaii Volcano Destroys One Of The Cameras Monitoring It; Camera's Last Moments Are Fascinating

The live cameras trained on Hawaii's Kilauea volcano are often a must-watch. 

Screen grab from a camera on Kilauea just before it was
destroyed by an eruption Saturday. This shows lava
splattering down right in front of the camera. 
Moments later, the camera went off line, destroyed. 

Kilauea is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, so we often in these web cams we are treated to views of fountains of lava gushing high into the air.  Powerful. Beautiful. Scary. 

On Saturday, Kilauea killed one of those web cams, and viewers got to watch its spectacular death. 

Now, this isn't really a weather or climate story, but the images are too good to pass up. 

The United States Geological Survey have set up the cameras around Kilauea for all of us to enjoy. All except the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory's V3 streaming camera is still operating. The camera named V3 was killed by the volcano on Saturday. RIP V3.  

Kilauea erupted Saturday, and it was one of the biggest of the year. Vents sent lava as high as 1,000 feet in the air. The lava burst out at angles, not straight up. That was especially the case from a southernmost vent, which is why the camera got nailed. 

Per The Watchers.

"Hot pumice and molten spatter from this south vent reached the V3 streaming camera site on the south rim of Halema'uma'u crater just before 10 HST (10 a.m. Hawaiian time). Video released by the U.S. Geological Survey shows the final seconds of the camera feed as the lens was obscured by tephra and the transmission abruptly ended. The device was later confirmed destroyed by direct impact and burial."

The video is something to see. At first you see huge amounts of lava rocketing skyward, then falling in an oddly graceful fashion. The eruption keeps getting closer, until you see hot pumice stones and chunks of lava landing right in front of the camera. 

Finally, the view is buried and smoke and steam. Right before it cuts out, a big chunk of red lava appears to land on the camera. 

Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.