New USGS Data Releases Available
Several newly published USGS data releases provide data on Kīlauea thermal maps during the 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption, tiltmeter data from Kīlauea summit stations during 2020, sulfur dioxide emission rates from Hawaiian volcanoes during 2018-2022, and tables chronicling volcanic activity in Hawaii over the past two and a half centuries.
New USGS Data Releases
If you have questions or comments about these data release products, please email askHVO@usgs.gov.
Thermal maps of the 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption of Kīlauea Volcano, Island of Hawaiʻi
Patrick (2024), view the data here: Thermal maps of the 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption of Kīlauea Volcano, Island of Hawaiʻi - ScienceBase-Catalog
The 2018 eruption of Kīlauea Volcano included both a large effusive eruption on the lower East Rift Zone and associated collapse and subsidence of the caldera floor at the summit (Anderson and others 2019; Neal and others 2019; Patrick and others 2020). Lava erupted from 24 fissures on the lower East Rift Zone over four months, with high effusion rates (>100 m3 s-1) often supplying lava into channelized flows (Dietterich and others 2021). This effusion produced an extensive lava flow field, covering 36 km2 and creating 3.5 km2 of new land along the coast (Zoeller and others 2020). The eruption was notable for the sustained high effusion rates, which produced complex and prolonged evolution of the lava flow field, dominated by the large channelized flow from fissure 8 that extended 13 km from the vent to the ocean. The eruption had a severe impact on the community, destroying over 700 structures in the lower Puna district (Meredith and others 2022).
In this data release, we include thermal maps of the eruption that document the highly dynamic evolution of the lava flow field on the lower East Rift Zone during this 2018 eruption.
Tiltmeter data from Kīlauea summit stations UWE and SDH from January 1 to December 31, 2020
Ellis and Johanson (2024), view the data here: Tiltmeter data from Kīlauea summit stations UWE and SDH from January 1 to December 31, 2020 - ScienceBase-Catalog
Tiltmeter data from borehole tilt stations UWE and SDH from January 1 to December 31, 2020, spanning a Kīlauea summit intrusion and summit eruption that began on December 20, 2020. These data were collected in 2020 by Andria P Ellis and Ingrid A Johanson of the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. The authors thank Sarah Conway for conducting the nearly monthly clock resets for these tiltmeters in 2020.
Sulfur dioxide emission rates from Hawaiian volcanoes, 2018-2022
Nadeau and others (2023), view the data here: Sulfur dioxide emission rates from Hawaiian volcanoes, 2018-2022 - ScienceBase-Catalog
Measurement of sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission rates is a critical aspect of monitoring and studying active volcanoes. Changes in emission rate are often associated with changes in volcanic activity and in some cases may herald future changes in activity. At the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO), emission rates of SO2 from Hawaiian volcanoes have been measured by ultraviolet spectrometer since the late 1970s [Casadevall and others, 1987]. Here we present a compilation of SO2 emission rate measurements made from 2018 to 2022. The emission rates (in t/d) span five orders of magnitude through a range of activity styles unprecedented in recent times, including caldera collapse [Anderson and others, 2019], the first prolonged non-eruptive period at Kīlauea since the early 1980s, a summit water lake [Nadeau and others, 2020], and the first eruption of Mauna Loa in nearly 40 years.
Chronology of recent volcanic activity on the Island of Hawai‘i, Hawaii
Mulliken and others (2024), view the data here: Chronology of recent volcanic activity on the Island of Hawai‘i, Hawaii - ScienceBase-Catalog
The youngest and largest island in the State of Hawaii—the Island of Hawai‘i—is formed by five volcanoes, three of which have erupted within recent geologic history: Mauna Loa, Kīlauea, and Hualālai. This data release provides a chronology for activity and impacts at Mauna Loa, Kīlauea, and Hualālai over approximately the past two and a half centuries. This data release includes a word document, “HI_volcanoes_chronology_description,” that describes the data compilation process and provides simple summary tables of eruptive activity and maps. A CSV file contains the compiled eruption chronology data for all volcanoes—"HI_volcanoes_chronology_data”—references for which are provided in a separate CSV file titled “HI_volcanoes_chronology_references.” Additionally, a formatted excel file contains sheets with both the eruption chronology data and references (that are contained in the csv tables). Users are encouraged to reference the original sources of information in the tables presented here. These data are subject to revision as additional documentation is discovered, as more interpretive work on recent volcanic events is undertaken, or as additional eruptive activity occurs. At the time of publication of version one of this data release in January 2024, Hualālai erupted most recently in 1801, Kīlauea erupted most recently in September 2023 at the summit, and Mauna Loa most recently erupted in 2022.
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