Hawai'i Volcano Blog

Levels of activity are expected to rise and fall during this period of unrest. No unusual activity has been noted along the volcano’s East Rift Zone or Southwest Rift Zone.

Elevated seismic activity continues in an area south of Kīlauea’s summit caldera, as steady rates of earthquakes have persisted in this location since Aug. 22. There were no notable swarms in the past day, and the volcano is not erupting. No unusual activity has been noted along the volcano’s East Rift Zone or Southwest Rift […]

The Big Island volcano is not erupting, but increased seismic activity continues in an area south of the caldera.

Steady rates of earthquakes have persisted in the area south of Kīlauea’s summit caldera since Aug. 22, according to Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Most of these earthquakes have occurred at depths of 1–2 miles below the surface.

Volcano observatories often use continuous remote monitoring instruments like seismometers and acoustic microphones to detect earthquakes and explosions.

Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park has scheduled multiple flight operations throughout September for various activities, including, ungulate surveys, invasive species control and Hawaiian petrel monitoring.

Earthquake swarms have been rattling the summit for nearly week with none reported Saturday.

Lis Gallant has spent the past two and a half years at the U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on the Big Island as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow and is joining the Department of Geology at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo as an assistant professor.

Despite the activity, Kīlauea is not erupting, however, the summit is exhibiting signs of unrest.

he swarm occurred in the same location as the swarm on Aug. 16 and is likely caused by movement of magma in Kīlauea’s south caldera region, and is a process observed consistently at the summit.

The number of earthquakes at Kīlauea’s summit has decreased compared to the past three weeks of increased seismic activity. Increases in ongoing summit inflation also have stopped.

Seeing that this eruption produced relatively thin and fast-moving pāhoehoe flows, we know the lava had a low viscosity. Essentially, it spread across the pre-existing ground surface like a coat of spilled paint rather than sticky tar. But why was the viscosity so low?

Elevated seismicity decreased following the swarms and remains steady as of the morning of Aug. 16, but the activity is still elevated compared to the previous week.

The elevated unrest suggests that an eruption at Kīlaueaʻs summit might be possible with little or no warning, but there is no sign that an eruption is imminent.

It’s important to evaluate what generates such large eruptions of the Big Island volcano because a similar eruption today would be devastating to communities surrounding Kīlauea summit and downwind.

Scientists at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa for the first time have been able to estimate the ages of the most recent eruptions — as well as eight older eruptions going back about 2,000 years — of the submarine Hawaiian volcano formerly known as the Lōʻihi Seamount off the south coast of the Big Island.

In the latest Volcano Watch, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey return to American Samoa a year after Taʻū volcano started shaking residents of the Manuʻa Islands of Ofu-Olosega and Ta‘ū Islands.

The Puna Road and Waterline Draft Environmental Assessment — for areas inundated by lava during the 2018 Kīlauea eruption — is complete and now available for public review.

Recovery efforts have been frustratingly slow on all fronts during the nearly five years since the catastrophic Kīlauea eruption ended in September 2018, leaving a big wake of destruction. But work and property buyouts continue five years later.

Ocean swells interact with the ocean crust below, creating continuous ocean noise that travels around the Earth, including through our active volcanoes here in Hawai‘i.