Volcano Awareness Month 2022 Short Feature — HVO’s ongoing recovery from the 2018 Kīlauea events

Communities on the Island of Hawai‘i continue to recover from Kīlauea’s 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption and summit collapse as does the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO). During the events of 2018, HVO instruments were lost, monitoring infrastructure was impacted, and HVO staff had to evacuate the observatory, which was damaged beyond repair. The USGS received funding through the Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act of 2019 (H.R. 2157) to support recovery and rebuilding activities in the wake of 2018. Join USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Deputy Scientist-in-Charge David Phillips as he discusses the three main activities funded during this Volcano Awareness Month 2022 presentation: bolstering volcano monitoring and eruption response capabilities, conducting scientific investigations, and building new HVO facilities.

Volcano Awareness Month is spearheaded by the USGS–Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, in cooperation with Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency, and the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, and provides informative and engaging public programs about the science and hazards of Hawaiian volcanoes. USGS photo: As magma in a shallow reservoir beneath Kīlauea summit drained into the lower East Rift Zone during the 2018 eruption, the ground above it subsided, enlarging Halema‘uma‘u crater. These collapse events damaged the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory buildings located in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.