Volcano Watch

Of the more than 30 eruptions of Mauna Loa in the last hundred years, the 1975 and 1984 eruptions are the first events for which we have detailed...

Volcanologists have long known that when molten rock rises to within 2-10 km (1-6 miles) of the Earth's surface, the overlying ground is often pushed...

"Volcano Watch" often responds to a question from an interested citizen. A resident of Makawao, Maui, asked about the stability of Kīlauea and whether...

A few days before the long Labor Day weekend, Hawai'i County officials closed the newly opened Lava Viewing road because a surface lava flow was...

Forty years ago, at 12:36 p.m. on September 21, a swarm of large, shallow earthquakes accompanied by strong harmonic tremor began to emanate from the...

The four youngest vents on West Maui erupted between 610,000 and 385,000 years ago. These newly determined radiometric ages remind us that sporadic...

Nothing is constant except change. On August 17 the Kalapana road was reopened, allowing visitors access to a short trail and fine view point...

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...