Aerial video and photos taken by a Canberra academic show Hawaii's Kilauea volcano dramatically spewing fountains of lava as high as 55 metres into the air.
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The volcano has been erupting for more than six weeks, with lava destroying more than 600 homes and flowing into the ocean, completely filling Kapoho Bay.
Australian National University associate professor Meghan Miller was in Honolulu for the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society annual meeting last week, and took a 45-minute helicopter flight over the eruption happening at Fissure 8 during her trip.
"It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience," she said.
"It was so spectacular that I can't really describe exactly what it was like."
Ms Miller said while the volcano was wreaking havoc in parts of Hawaii, most of the island was just getting on with things as usual.
"In Hilo, on Big Island, you would not even know [the eruption] was happening," she said.
"Just a few miles away, there's no hint of it at all.
"You're imagining this enormous eruption covering the entire island, but it's very localised."
The volcano has also produced hundreds of moderate earthquakes since it began erupting on May 3, but there have so far been no reports of casualties.
Lava has now been spread over more than 800 hectares, with the eruption opening up at least 22 fissures in the ground.
The US Geological Survey said lava fountains from the volcano had reached as high as 55 metres.
University of Hawaii geologist Scott Rowland told Reuters the eruption was the most destructive in the US since Mount St Helens in Washington erupted in 1980, killing 57 people.
