Will McGough, CNN ⢠Updated 5th February 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail Up next (CNN) â Five days before Christmas, Cheryl Gansecki, a volcanologist at the University of HawaiÊ»i Hilo, was in bed when a small earthquake shook her awake sometime after 9:30 p.m. She checked the webcams at the summit of the KÄ«lauea Volcano, and her eyes went wide when she saw it -- the bright, bold glow coming from the crater. The lava. It had returned. She promptly made the 45-minute drive to the crater rim, adjacent to the Visitors Center at HawaiÊ»i Volcanoes National Park. By the time she arrived at 10:45 p.m., word had spread far and wide.