Hawaii Volcano Blog

These yearly campaign surveys help supplement the continuously recording GPS receivers that blanket the Island of Hawai‘i.

Kīlauea’s recent volcano alert-level change, from Watch to Advisory, has attracted some attention.

The Halemaʻumaʻu lava lake celebrated its five-month anniversary by doing what we all like to do on our special day, taking a break.

An earthquake struck beneath the south flank of Kīlauea on Sunday, May 23.

Many people in Kaʻū have noticed the swarm of earthquakes taking place during the past few years.

Kīlauea’s summit lava lake in Halemaʻumaʻu is approaching its five-month anniversary on Thursday, May 20, while the water lake that occupied the crater for the previous seventeen months seems like a distant memory.

The Kahuku Visitor Contact Station (VSC) will also reopen Thursday to visitors who recreate responsibly and follow COVID safety guidelines.

Although Mauna Loa is Earth’s largest active volcano, it has lived in the shadow of Kīlauea since it last erupted in 1984.

The Puʻu ʻŌʻō collapse marked what scientists at the USGS have since determined was the end of a 35-year eruption that began in 1983.

May 3 marks three years since the start of the devastating lower East Rift Zone eruption of Kīlauea.

The opportunity to calibrate HVO gravimeters on Mauna Kea provides the ability to design a gravity monitoring program to help understand volcanic unrest at Mauna Loa.

It is no secret that the Island of Hawaiʻi is home to fantastic volcanic features, many of which have been created during eruptions of Kīlauea, Mauna Loa, and Hualalai since 1800.

The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) uses dozens of seismometers to locate individual earthquakes and identify signals that are related to faulting and magma movement within our volcanoes.

The USGS “Did you feel it?” service received over 130 felt reports within the first hour of the earthquake, including one report from Kaua‘i.

One of the most interesting aspects of the current activity in Halemaʻumaʻu is the occasional oozing of lava around the edges of the entire crater while the lava surface is rising.

As these swells rise and fall, they couple with the ocean floor below them creating a constant signal.

How can you prepare for a Mauna Loa eruption? The most important thing you can do is to have a personal response plan — especially if you live in or near the magenta zone.

HVO scientists continue to keep a close eye on Kīlauea and the other volcanoes around the island, always analyzing and interpreting data for any hint of activity that may precede the next eruption, wherever it may be.

Mauna Loa is not currently erupting. But there have been signs of elevated unrest above known background activity since July 2019.

The rise of the lava lake has been interrupted by several plateaus, and even drops, in level over the past few weeks.