Hawai'i Volcano Blog

Facility within Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park open to use before visitors head out into the park, which is especially nice now that visitor center restrooms are zipped up for renovations.

Work on the Hawaiian Volcano Observatoryʻs new permanent home and a field station continue despite a recent scare, when its temporary home in Hilo was on the original list of federal buildings “not core to government operations,” according to the Trump Administration.

Kīlauea summit has shown little net change in pressurization since the eruption began Dec. 23, 2024, indicating the summit has been in some level of equilibrium. As long as that equilibrium is maintained, the episodic eruption at the summit is likely to continue.

When magma moves into the rift zone of a Hawaiian volcano, there is understandably a lot of excitement and apprehension. How far will the magma go? Will it erupt? But even long after the activity stops — regardless of whether it erupts — the subsurface magma continues to have a noticeable impact on the landscape.

It took about 10 hours or so, but the vents inside Halemaʻumaʻu Crater within Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park once again did not disappoint, but officials warn there are some hazards to watch out for accompanying the roaring geysers of molten rock.

There seems to be enough evidence of some sort of collapse happening, which remains the only such event in the volcano’s documented history, simultaneously with a dramatic eruption that caused Hawai’i’s largest ever recorded earthquake, a magnitude-7.9 temblor that resulted in a tsunami and landslide in Ka’u that killed more than 100 people and lava flows that inundated 9 square miles.

The newest eruptive phase of the ongoing eruption inside Halemaʻumaʻu Crater within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park began just before 9:30 a.m. today (March 19), but the signature tall lava fountains the the active phases have become known for are expected later this afternoon.

It’s been 7 days, a whole week, since Episode 13 ended, which seems to be just the right amount of time lately for the Big Island volcano to recharge. Hawaiian Volcano Observatory says new lava geysers could erupt in the vents within Halemaʻumaʻu Craterbefore as early as today.

By measuring the density of carbon dioxide trapped in bubbles formed in crystals as magma is under pressure underground, scientists can determine the depth at which the gas became trapped, and hence the depth of magma storage before eruption.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported geysers of molten rock ceased from north vent at 3:11 p.m. March 11 and then just 2 minutes later from south vent after just 12 hours and 37 minutes of eruptive activity in Halemaʻumaʻu Crater.

Several past eruptions were characterized by similar lava fountaining episodes, including at the start of the Puʻuʻōʻō eruption in 1983, the start of the Maunaulu eruption in 1969 and the 1959 Kīlauea Iki eruption.

Fountains once again reached heights of 600 feet, which were sustained until the north vent in Halemaʻumaʻu Crater quit erupting at 8:26 p.m. March 4. Sustained fountains from the south vent saw heights of 200 to 400 feet throughout the night before decreasing. Just like the best season finale, however, the exciting, roaring eruptive event ended all too soon at 10:37 a.m. March 5, just less than 22 hours after it started.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reports the most recent eruptive activity of the ongoing eruption in Kaluapele, the volcano’s summit caldera, started at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday with sporadic small lava flows alternating between the south and north vents in the southwest portion of Halema‘uma‘u Crater. A transition to fountaining began at 2 p.m.

People are urged to be aware of the conditions around them and how they could react to vog. They are also encouraged to access air quality data on the the state Health Department Clean Air Branch website and Hawai‘i Interagency Vog Information Dashboard for the most up-to-date information about vog.

It was a dark and stormy night when the eruption near Nāpau Crater on Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone began Sept. 15, 2024. So much so that Hawaiian Volcano Observatory webcams were no help in detecting if there was an eruption or not. But you know who could? Residents of Volcano, who could smell sulfurous and burning odors.

Despite their outward differences, the fundamental engines that power volcanism in both regions are quite similar. There’s a lot of aloha in southern Idaho and northwestern Wyoming.

Lava fountains reached as high as 600 feet for part of the most recent eruptive activity of the ongoing summit eruption of the Big Island volcano, with lava covering between 75% and 80% of the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater floor.

Newest eruptive activity of ongoing eruption of Big Island volcano began just before 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, with lava fountaining to more than 200 feet about 30 minutes later.

Captivating lava fountains burst from either one or both of the vents during each eruptive episode. However, as fascinating as those episodes are, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory are equally as interested in what’s happening beneath the surface between episodes.

The latest eruptive activity started at 8:22 p.m. Feb. 19 and ended at 9:18 a.m. Feb. 20. Lava flows from this episode covered 73% of the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater floor in the southern part of Kaluapele, the volcano’s caldera.