Volcano Watch

On September 14–16, 2026, a set of six new eruptive fissure vents opened at Kīlauea summit along the western wall of Halemaʻumaʻu. These vents opened...

I am a seismologist at the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO)—earthquakes are always on my mind. But this wasn’t always the case. 

As flames, spatter, and lava flows erupted from the north and south vents in Halemaʻumaʻu at the summit of Kīlauea on the night of September 30, 2026...

During a two-week trip to American Samoa in August and September, USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) staff repaired and serviced the volcano...

Beginning with episode 5 in January, 2025, the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has been issuing forecast windows for when the next lava fountain...

Kīlauea has drawn huge crowds to witness the lava fountaining episodes from its summit crater of Halemaʻumaʻu since December 2024, with many visitors...

Benjamin Franklin said, “If you fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”  As the past year in Hawaii has shown, hurricanes, eruptions, earthquakes...

In July, USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) scientists visited an exposure of tephra and lava flows in the western wall of Kaluapele. The layers...

Did you feel that earthquake? Time to check the location and magnitude. Do you need to find out how much Kīlauea summit region has repressurized since...

Ocean swells are constantly beating on the ocean floor. This nonstop drumming creates continuous signals that travel through the Earth and are...

Kīlauea’s current summit eruption started on December 23, 2024. Fifty-two episodes of lava fountains have happened on average every 11 days, and we...

Talmadge Magno, Administrator of Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency (CD), who navigated the Island of Hawaiʻi response to volcanic eruptions from...

The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) relies heavily on Global Positioning System (GPS) data to monitor volcanic activity in Hawaii. Data are...

USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) staff are often asked, “Will lava erupted during the ongoing Kīlauea summit eruption in Halemaʻumaʻu...

Island of Hawaiʻi residents may have felt shaking recently from large, deep earthquakes. Deep earthquakes like this have been recorded since the USGS...

Hawaii, the 50th state, reached a golden anniversary last Saturday, June 27. Surprise, it’s the 50th fountaining episode of the ongoing episodic...

In 2025, Professor Bruce Houghton retired from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa after 25 years as the Gordon A. Macdonald Chair of Volcanology. He...

Over the last year and a half, the historic episodic eruption at the summit of Kīlauea has had 49 episodes of lava fountaining, with episode 50 in the...

April marked the 100-year anniversary of Mauna Loa’s 1926 Southwest Rift Zone eruption. This eruption is most remembered for the destruction of Ho...

As you walk along Crater Rim Trail from Wahinekapu (Steaming Bluffs) heading towards the Uēkahuna overlook in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, you’ll...