The volcanic event in Puna was the 62nd episode of Kīlauea's east rift zone eruption that began in January 1983. Puʻu ʻŌʻō had become a prominent volcanic cone east of the summit caldera of Kīlauea, since the 1983 eruption's beginning. In the 1980s and 1990s, Puʻu ʻŌʻō produced lava flows that destroyed the nearby Royal Gardens subdivision and the settlement of Kapaʻahu. In 1990, lava flows from the Kūpaʻianahā vent of Kīlauea, downrift from Puʻu ʻŌʻō, destroyed and partly buried most of the nearby towns of Kalapana and Kaimū.