Hawaii Volcano Blog

As Hawaiian volcanoes erupt and grow, they add more and more weight to the Earth’s surface.

Mauna Loa erupted 46 years ago this week, on July 5–6, 1975, in a 20-hour event.

Happy Canada Day/Bonne Fête du Canada! While some past “Volcano Watch” articles have had a July 4th theme for the USA, this year we’re taking the opportunity to ensure readers know that our neighbors to the north have volcanoes, too — including potentially active ones.

The journey from volcanic repose to a climactic eruption is like a mystery movie that keeps you at the edge of your seat.

This newly-developed instrument monitors lava lake dynamics with unprecedented resolution.

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.