USGS HVO Press Release — Magnitude 4.3 Earthquake Southwest of Kīlauea Summit
The U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) recorded a magnitude-4.3 earthquakelocated beneath Kīlauea Volcano on the Island of Hawai‘i on Monday, February 9, at 8:16 a.m., HST. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (http://ptwc.weather.gov/?region=2) determined that no damaging tsunami was generated by the earthquake.
According to Wes Thelen, HVO's Seismic Network Manager, the earthquake was centered about 8 km (5 mi) west-southwest of the summit of Kīlauea and at a depth of approximately 13 km (8 mi). A map showing its location is posted on the HVO website at
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/seismic/volcweb/earthquakes/.
The USGS "Did you feel it?" Web site (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/dyfi/) received more than 80 felt reports within two hours of the earthquake. It was felt across the Island of Hawai‘i, but most of the felt reports were from the village of Volcano. Reports indicate that residents experienced only weak shaking (Intensity III) during the earthquake. At these shaking intensities, damage to buildings or structures is not expected.
As of 10:00 a.m., HST, Monday morning, February 9, five aftershocks of the magnitude-4.3 earthquake have been recorded. The strongest of these aftershocks has been magnitude-1.
During the past 25 years, there have been two earthquakes in this same general area with magnitudes greater than 3.0 and depths of 10–20 km (6–12 mi). Today's earthquake could lie on the fault that marks the boundary between Mauna Loa and Kīlauea, or it could have occurred on a reactivated fault within the old oceanic crustupon which the Island of Hawai‘i is built.
The earthquake has caused no detectable changes on Kīlauea or other active volcanoes on the Island of Hawai‘i.
For information on recent earthquakes in Hawai‘i and eruption updates, visit the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory website at http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov.
Daily updates about ongoing eruptions, recent images and videos of summit and East Rift Zone volcanic activity, maps, and data about recent earthquakes in Hawaii are posted on the HVO website at https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatories/hvo.
USGS provides science for a changing world. Visit USGS.gov, and follow us on Twitter @USGS and our other social media channels.
Subscribe to our news releases via RSS, or Twitter.
Links and contacts within this release are valid at the time of publication.
Get Our News
These items are in the RSS feed format (Really Simple Syndication) based on categories such as topics, locations, and more. You can install and RSS reader browser extension, software, or use a third-party service to receive immediate news updates depending on the feed that you have added. If you click the feed links below, they may look strange because they are simply XML code. An RSS reader can easily read this code and push out a notification to you when something new is posted to our site.