#mauna loa eruption

Explore Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park this February through a variety of free events and guided programs that showcase its unique natural and cultural resources.

The global volcano monitoring community routinely installs clusters of acoustic sensors called arrays on the flanks of volcanoes that can measure the audible noise (sounds we can hear) and the inaudible noise, which have frequencies that human ears can’t sense (infrasound).

In the latest Volcano Watch, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists are looking for a new place to put a summit gas measuring station to replace the one destroyed by the 2022 Mauna Loa eruption.

At the U.S. Army Garrison Pōhakuloa Training Area on the Big island, scientists recently conducted two diverse projects: one about the Hawaiian bud moth and one about the 2022 Mauna Loa eruption.

The Hawai’i State Division of Forestry and Wildlife asks that people stay off the 2022 Mauna Loa lava flow to protect themselves from hazardous conditions.

The lava sample analysis results from the 2022 eruption of Mauna Loa gave geologists a window into the volcano’s plumbing system for the first time in almost 40 years.  

Despite the development of new volcano monitoring techniques, decades between the eruptions meant there were many uncertainties leading to the recent eruption of Mauna Loa on the Big Island.

During eruptions, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory aims to characterize both the chemistry and amount of gas being emitted. 

The request for a federal disaster declaration comes on the heels of one-day, onsite inspection Jan. 5 by an 11-person team of state and federal emergency management officials of damages and impacts caused by the eruption of Mauna Loa.

The team of inspectors will examine the damage and impact sustained to the Mauna Loa Observatory Road and other infrastructure that were overrun by lava from the eruption on the Big Island.

Years of restoration work and ungulate control efforts in the Pu‘u Maka‘ala Natural Area Reserve could have been undone had lava flows gone a different direction.

In 2022 the Big Island community experienced extreme weather, earthquakes, fires and two erupting volcanoes; mourned tragedies and the death of a revered kumu hula; and witnessed the loss of historic buildings, including the Hōlualoa Theater.

The temporary measurement site ensures the continuity of carbon dioxide data collection and other atmospheric measurements that normally would be taken at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Observatory.

Images captured last week of swirling clouds near the front of the lava flow from fissure 3 on Mauna Loa while it was still active were vortices similar to dust devils.

Seismicity and deformation patterns remain unsettled, which means there remains a potential the KIlauea eruption will resume or a new eruption can occur at or near the summit of Kīlauea. But it is unexpected Mauna Loa’s eruption will resume.

Today, at 9:35 a.m., the volcano’s status report said the Northeast Rift Zone eruption of Mauna Loa may still be active at the main fissure 3 vent, but “all 2022 lava flows appear to be inactive.”

Also in December, volcanoes Ibu and Dukono are erupting in tandem in Indonesia on the same island in the remote Maluku island chain.

The first few hours of Mauna Loa’s eruption were dynamic, and volcanologists intently watched monitoring data to track changing conditions and understand how the eruption was developing.

While the Mauna Loa eruption continues, officials with the U.S. Geological Survey say fissure 3 has significantly reduced lava and gas emission output.

The leading edge of the Mauna Loa eruption has stalled and is currently no longer a threat to Daniel K. Inouye Highway.