Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano has been oozing lava for more than three decades. But in recent days fountains of lava hundreds of feet high, a dozen new fissures and plumes of steam, ash, and gases have struck the area around Kilauea and forced more than 1,700 people to flee their homes. Hundreds of earthquakes and changes in the shape of Kilauea foretold the eruption and facilitated early warnings for residents, but it remains unknown how the eruption will unfold or how long it will last. Stanford University volcanologist Paul Segall, a professor of geophysics in the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth), described the science behind this latest eruption, what we can learn from it and how forecasters can begin to answer those questions about what happens after a volcano blows.