But as a shield volcano, Kilauea doesn’t have explosive, Mt. St. Helens-type eruptions. Instead, it emits a steady stream of fluid lava that generally flows gently down the side of the mountain ...

In these pictures researchers work on the top of the 4,000ft Kilauea volcano. The shots were taken by local photographer G. Brad Lewis, 56, who said: 'Erupting volcanoes have always fascinated me.

They're also called composite volcanoes. Mount Rainier in Washington is a famous stratovolcano. Shield volcanoes are big, broad volcanoes made up of oozy lava flows that erupt from multiple vents.

Poland described the volcano as "fascinating" but reassured that it "doesn't really pose a hazard". Axial Seamount is a shield volcano, similar to Mauna Loa, the world's most active volcano ...

Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy, is an example of a composite volcano. Shield volcanoes do not have such violent eruptions. These volcanoes tend to have gentle slopes and their runnier lava spreads ...