The East Lae'apuki lava bench on the ever-changing coastline at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park has grown to 44 acres, creating one of the largest deltas in the 23-year history of the Kilauea eruption.

The bench, fed by underground lava tubes, is larger than the 34 acres of newly formed land that collapsed into the sea without warning on Nov. 28, 2005.

The new bench is about 1,110 yards long and 347 yards wide, or roughly the size of 40 football fields, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. It is expanding out over a steep underwater slope, on top of the rubble from the previous collapse and other volcanic debris.

The new bench is extremely unstable and prone to submarine landslides, and safety concerns led the national park to close the area around the East Lae'apuki ocean entries.

Observatory scientists who recently flew over the lava bench in a helicopter reported large cracks running parallel to the coastline. They were surprised to see water in most of the cracks, which are about a yard wide near the center of the bench, according to the observatory. The water level was about 3 1/2 yards below the surface of the bench, indicating the tubes carrying lava to the ocean are at least 4 1/2 to 5 yards below the surface, scientists said.

Observers yesterday reported lava flowing into the ocean at two points at East Lae'apuki.

Between 800 and 1,000 people a day are making their way down to the lava-viewing area at the end of the Chain of Craters Road, said park ranger Lauri Horner. Visitors can see steam billowing up from where lava is entering the sea and, at night, the glow from the ocean entry.

Horner said there is no surface lava visible on the pali but as a consolation, the Southern Cross constellation can be seen in the night sky.

There are restrooms and a pavilion with picnic tables at the viewing area. From there, visitors can walk a half-mile on a paved stretch to where lava oozed over the road in April 2003. A trail on the flow runs for a mile and a half until access is cut off by a rope barrier.

Horner said most visitors opt to hike the half-mile on the road and then proceed over the 2003 flow for about 150 yards to a high spot where park rangers have set up a telescope for twilight viewing of the ocean entry.

Officials said that despite warnings, a small number of people continue to enter the closed area at night, sometimes venturing out onto the bench.

Steam explosions from bench collapses can send lava spatter and large rocks into the air. Collapses also create waves of scalding water that can wash onshore, burning onlookers.

There have been four deaths in recent years associated with active lava benches. In one instance, a photographer entered a closed area and disappeared when the half-acre shelf he was standing on collapsed into the sea. More than a dozen others standing nearby were injured by flying debris. A second man died when he slid down the side of a coastal lava cone and dropped into the ocean, never to be seen again.

In another case, two hikers died from inhaling acid-laden steam about 100 yards from an ocean entry.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.