[4][5] The Puʻu ʻŌʻō eruption began when fissures split the ground in the remote rainforest of the eastern rift zone, on January 3, 1983.

Over the next three years, 44 eruptive episodes with lava fountains as high as 460 meters (1,510 ft) stopped traffic at points across east Hawaiʻi.

In July 1986, the conduit feeding magma to Puʻu ʻŌʻō ruptured, and the eruption abruptly shifted 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) downrift to form the Kūpaʻianahā vent.

In the course of that month, lava cut a swath through Kapaʻahu, covered the coastal highway, and finally reached the ocean 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) from the vent.

In 1990, the eruption entered its most destructive phase, when flows turned eastward and completely destroyed the villages of Kalapana and Kaimū.

The eruption then returned to Puʻu ʻŌʻō, where flank vents on the west and southwest sides of the cone constructed a new lava shield.

The flank vents have held center stage ever since, with the exception of a two-month pause in activity, early in 1997, which followed a brief fissure eruption in Nāpau Crater, a short distance southwest of Puʻu ʻŌʻō.

Deep within the rift zone, magma was escaping from the conduit leading to the Puʻu ʻŌʻō vent, cutting off the supply to the ongoing eruption.

A few hours later, as magma found a new path to the surface, the ground cracked in nearby Nāpau Crater, and lava fountains lit up the night sky.

As of January 2007, 3.1 cubic km of lava had covered 117 km2 (45 sq mi) and added 201 hectares (500 acres) to Kīlauea's southern shore.

Lava began emerging from a series of cracks in the northeast rift zone and spread slowly east and south as a perched flow, with slow advances of ʻaʻā.

In late July 2008, additional flows extended from the eastern vents of Puʻu ʻŌʻō and in October multiple new fissures opened along the length of the tube expanding into Royal Gardens Subdivision and covered a large area of the coastal flats in November 2008.

The channelized ʻaʻā lava flow reached 3.7 km (2.3 mi) long on 23 September and then stalled within the Kahaualeʻa Natural Area Reserve.

[9][10] On June 27, 2014, new vents opened on the northeast flank of the Puʻu ʻŌʻō cone that fed a narrow lava flow to the east-northeast.

On August 18, the flow entered a ground crack, traveled underground for several days, then resurfaced to form a small lava pond.

[11] Advancing to the northeast at intermittent rates, the flow had entered the village of Pāhoa and was within 25 meters (27 yards) of the waste recycling center on October 31.