Volcano Watch

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...

More than 7,000 people across the State of Hawaii submitted “Did You Feel It?” (DYFI) reports to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) after the magnitude...

The lava fountains that erupted a week ago, on Thursday May 14, marked the 47th episode of the ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption. This episode tied the...

Over the past month, the frequency of fountaining events at the summit of Kīlauea has increased to nearly one per week. This is reminiscent of the...

This past March, a team of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists—two of whom travelled from Hawaii—visited El Salvador in Central America for...

We are used to seeing eruptions from the summit region of Kīlauea contained to the region that is referred to as Halemaʻumaʻu. Halemaʻumaʻu, home of...

The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) detected an increase in shallow seismicity and localized ground deformation beneath the south rim of...

As Hilo was bustling with activity for the Merrie Monarch Festival, Kīlauea was brewing for episode 44 of lava fountaining, which happened for 8.5...

Past “Volcano Watch” articles have summarized the episodic lava fountaining eruptions in Kīlauea’s recent history—within the past couple hundred years...

The USGS Volcano Alert Level (ground-based hazards) and Aviation Color Code (airborne hazards) communicate Kīlauea status and activity. After episode...

Geochemical analysis of erupted tephra samples over the past decade help scientists understand the temperature of Kīlauea’s shallow magma system under...

The summit region of Kīlauea experienced tephra fallout and a Kona low storm this past week. Cleanup, recovery, and regrowth is ongoing. These...

Episode 43 at the summit of Kīlauea began at 9:17 a.m. HST on March 10, 2026, and continued for 9 hours. Both the north and south vents erupted lava...

The Volcano Observatory Notice to Aviation (VONA) is a notification product used by volcano observatories globally to inform the aviation community ...