Volcano Watch

Several decades ago, a person who had an overly active imagination might have been described as being "out in the ozone." Now just where would that be...

What is the summit elevation of Mauna Loa? 13,677 feet (4168.7 m) according to the 1994 Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park brochure; 13,679 feet (4169.4...

At 2:00 p.m. on Friday, August 17, the County of Hawai`i officially opened to the public a new viewing area of the current eruptive activity. The...

What's the difference between a bench and a boardwalk? Both offer a view of the sea, but while the latter is a pleasant place for a stroll, a walk on...

Every few months HVO receives a phone call from a concerned citizen explaining that steam is billowing from a new hole in a yard or pasture. Is this...

Surfers of our Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) web site might have noticed that, earlier this year, we rolled out a modified web presentation of...

Every so often we receive a number of inquiries from anxious people in Kona about a possible eruption of Hualālai Volcano. The latest spate of...

The ground surface subsided abruptly about six weeks ago at Pu`u `O`o, Kīlauea Volcano's active cinder-cone vent. Gaping cracks opened around the...

A visitor recently asked, "Does Kīlauea erupt more often at the summit or along its two rift zones?" Let's try to answer that question.

A common sight this time of year, particularly in Puna and the National Park, is a bright yellow tripod topped with a white disk. Usually seen...

Few landscape changes are as extreme as that between the windward and leeward sides of Kīlauea's caldera. Simply drive from the Visitor Center in...

The hot-spot theory is the well-known modern explanation for the origin of the Hawaiian island chain. In it, the Pacific plate drifts northwestward...

Kīlauea wasn't always like it is today. Two hundred thousand years and the change from a seamount to an island can do a lot to a volcano. The trick is...

HVO scientists have developed techniques to study conditions in the interior of active lava tubes and flows by making measurements on and above their...

The last couple of weeks have been exciting ones to be studying active volcanism in Hawai'i. To start with, after several months of fairly constant...

The basic strategy in monitoring a volcano has not changed much since 1912 when Thomas A. Jaggar founded HVO. He recognized the importance of...

On the night of June 1, 1950, after many residents of Ho`okena-mauka village in South Kona had already gone to bed, Mauna Loa began to erupt. Soon the...

A pair of devastating eruptions in the Caribbean 99 years ago this week shook the world and, as fate would have it, led indirectly to the founding of...

In last week's article we mentioned that April is tsunami awareness month in Hawai`i and earthquakeawareness month in California.

Early Monday morning, residents of the northern half of the island were awakened by a magnitude-3.9 earthquake. This was a gentle reminder that we...