Hawai'i Volcano Blog

Join Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and partners again in January 2025 to learn about volcanic activity in Hawaiʻi but also think about submitting a piece for the new art and poetry contest.

Earthquakes in the Kaʻiwi Channel region are not common but occasionally have happened in the past 200 years. They are caused by bending of the crust beneath the islands and associated adjustments related to the weight of the islands.

Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park is thankful this Thanksgiving holiday weekend for staff, volunteers and all of its partners who work behind the scenes — and even on holidays — to protect it from invasive, non-native introduced pests. You can get involved, too.

The earthquake happened at 8:40 a.m. Saturday morning 11 miles west-northwest of Volcano at a depth of 13 miles below sea level. It was felt around the island and as far away as Honolulu.

While old-fashioned eyes and a notebook are used when field teams are near a volcano, modern volcano observatories also use rapidly collected data and computers to support monitoring. Hawaiian Volcano Observatory computers are ‘trained’ to look for activity and send alerts when a volcano is changing or becoming active.

Go work off some of those Turkey Day calories. The historic and scenic thoroughfare from Kīpukapuaulu to the 6,667-foot Mauna Loa Lookout in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park is reopen 7 days a week for everyone to use.

One of the park’s most unique — and popular — trails, with stunning bright yellow sulfur crystals clinging to lava rocks on a steaming Kīlauea volcano, reopened Friday, about 3 weeks early, with a new boardwalk and improved safety and accessibility.

A team of scientists from Aotearoa New Zealand teamed up with scientists from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory in December 2022 to carry out a small pilot study of atmospheric corrosion rates on the Island of Hawai‘i.

The temporary outage that started just before 7:30 a.m. today was resolved at about 10:30 a.m. and related to a power outage in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.

Native Hawaiian oral traditions record a rich history of the changing volcanic landscape in Hawaiʻi. Interweaving cultural knowledge with scientific disciplines can provide a more complete understanding of past events, including the largest known lava flow eruption of Kīlauea.

Survey, drilling and soil sampling work is underway as the initial step of a project to improve the safety and accessibility of the scenic roadway; however, some access will be provided.

Geologic maps are not an exact depictions of the Earth’s surface. Instead, they display a generalization of interested units and features in correspondence with the scale of a map.

Magnitude-4.8 earthquake struck the island at 1:42 a.m. today, 3 miles southwest of Pāhala, on the southeastern flank of Mauna Loa, at a depth of 24 miles below sea level. It had no impact on either Mauna Loa or Kīlauea volcanoes.

Borehole tiltmeters have been used by the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) since the early 1970s and have since become an essential part of HVO’s volcano monitoring program.

While there were several summit eruptions at Kīlauea during the decade, including one that lasted more than 8 months, eruptions along the East Rift Zone — mainly in the upper and middle portions — were much more frequent.

While scenarios such as a new pit crater forming in the Chain of Craters or large seaward movement of the volcano’s south flank are less likely, current conditions provide an excellent opportunity to better understand what can happen in the long run.

In Hawai‘i, earthquakes are a common occurrence, and we should always practice earthquake preparedness.

Firefighters continue to suppress the 78-acre Makaopuhi Fire in the remote middle East Rift Zone of Kīlauea volcano south of Nāpau Crater inside Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. It is 70% contained and poses no threats to homes or structures.

A U.S. Geological Survey overflight at about 11:30 a.m. on Monday confirmed that the plume and glow seen on a webcam near a recent eruption were due to a small wildfire.

While access has been restored to additional locations inside Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park and Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources natural reserve land, several spots remain shuttered because of volcanic and wildfire-related hazards.