--- title: Watch a Volcanic Eruption From Space description: The video shows smoke and steam rising from the eastern flank of the Napau Crater on Hawaii's Mt. Kilauea canonical: https://time.com/4261345/volcano-erupt-kilauea-space-hawaii/ author: TIME Photo article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-16T16:51:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:57:22.269Z article:section: Science og:title: Watch a Volcanic Eruption From Space og:description: Urthecast releases the first full-color video of the active volcano from the ISS og:url: https://time.com/4261345/volcano-erupt-kilauea-space-hawaii/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d0d30058236b432/69888b4af887dc7533e95112/volcano-hawaii-urthecast-from-space-fb-crop.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1344 og:image:alt: volcano-hawaii-urthecast-from-space-fb-crop og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch a Volcanic Eruption From Space twitter:description: Urthecast releases the first full-color video of the active volcano from the ISS twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d0d30058236b432/69888b4af887dc7533e95112/volcano-hawaii-urthecast-from-space-fb-crop.jpg?branch=production ---  # Watch a Volcanic Eruption From Space by [TIME Photo](https://time.com/author/time-photo/) ## TIME Photo Mar 16, 2016 4:51 PM UTC  UrtheCast Corp. by [TIME Photo](https://time.com/author/time-photo/) ## TIME Photo Mar 16, 2016 4:51 PM UTC Twenty-three seconds is not much in the life of a volcano that’s been steadily erupting for 33 years. But when those 23 seconds are captured by a high-definition camera aboard the International Space Station, they matter a lot—if only because they can give the 7.1 billion of us who will never go into space a perspective on the planet that the few who do leave it get to see all the time. In this case, that perspective is provided by a camera placed aboard the station by [Urthecast](https://www.urthecast.com/), a Canadian company that makes planetary images available to businesses, developers and just plain gawkers. The video shows smoke and steam rising from the eastern flank of the Napau Crater on [Hawaii’s Mt. Kilauea](http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=80091&mc%5Fcid=478922c228&mc%5Feid=b10218b948), which began erupting on January 3, 1983, and has continued, over the course of 60 different phases of eruption through a series of different vents, ever since. There’s no telling when Kilauea will quiet down. But thanks to the space station, this brief moment in the eruption’s long life is the one we will all know the best. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4261345/volcano-erupt-kilauea-space-hawaii/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4261345/volcano-erupt-kilauea-space-hawaii/"},"headline":"Watch a Volcanic Eruption From Space","datePublished":"2016-03-16T16:51:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:57:22.269Z","description":"The first full-color video of an active volcano in Hawaii is captured by the International Space Station","url":"https://time.com/4261345/volcano-erupt-kilauea-space-hawaii/","keywords":["hawaii","Space","Science topic","Volcano","video","iss"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d0d30058236b432/69888b4af887dc7533e95112/volcano-hawaii-urthecast-from-space-fb-crop.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Photo","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-photo/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d0d30058236b432/69888b4af887dc7533e95112/volcano-hawaii-urthecast-from-space-fb-crop.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"volcano-hawaii-urthecast-from-space-fb-crop","caption":"Witness A Volcanic Eruption From Space","creditText":"UrtheCast Corp.","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/hawaii/","name":"hawaii"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4261345/volcano-erupt-kilauea-space-hawaii/","name":"Watch a Volcanic Eruption From Space"}}]}] ```