Waves of orange, glowing lava and smoky ash belched and sputtered Monday from the world’s largest active volcano in its first eruption in 38 years, and officials told people living on Hawaii’s Big Island to be ready in the event of a worst-case scenario.

Hawaii’s most active and popular volcano, Kilauea, is preparing to put on a show as geologists forecast the volcano’s 44th eruption in the coming days. The United States Geological Survey said that precursory eruption activity is occurring as the active volcano prepares to erupt – one of Earth’s most captivating natural spectacles.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory — after the next projected lava fountaining episode of the ongoing episodic eruption at the summit, which will be Episode 44, sometime from April 6-14 — will change how it applies alert level and aviation color code to better convey hazards between and during eruptive episodes at Kīlauea summit.

Update April 9 at 8 p.m.: Episode 44 has ended after nine hours of continuous lava fountaining, prompting officials to lower alert levels due to reduced volcanic hazards. The U.S. Geological Survey said Episode 44 of the ongoing eruption ended at 7:41 p.m. on Thursday, April 9.

Revising Kilauea’s Alert Level and Aviation Color Code notifications – Features, Volcano Update | West Hawaii Today