Volcano Watch

Sometimes in science you find something that theory says you shouldn't. Then your pulse starts racing. Are your observations or calculations wrong? Is...

What do Kīlauea Volcano's eruption and Hilo's 7:30 a.m. traffic have in common? For one thing, lots of stops and starts. The stops and starts in the...

The past two weeks have seen changes in Kīlauea's eruption. The changes aren't fundamental, but they do impact the viewing public. The ocean entry has...

Late last week geophysicist Michael Lisowski and his family left Hilo for Vancouver, Washington, and the Cascades Volcano Observatory. 

The weekly newspaper series "Volcano Watch" has been published continuously since November 1991. Its articles keep Big Island residents informed about...

How much magma enters Kīlauea every day? How much is erupted to the surface? How much stays underground?
 

In our "Volcano Watch" series and in our scientific reports and presentations, we present and discuss findings relating to volcanoes and earthquakes. ...

Several million years ago, when Kaua`i was the youngest island in the Hawaiian archipelago, and Pele made her home in the caldera atop Mount Waialeale...

We recently completed a leveling survey along the Ka`u trail in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. This 16-km (10 mi) route runs inland from the south...

A TV crew doing a documentary on lighthouses in Hawai`i recently asked HVO if erupting Kīlauea and Mauna Loa could have served as natural beacons for...

In recent weeks the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has begun a program to install new instrumentation to help monitor Mauna Loa...

The Wailuku River is an important landmark to geologists, because it marks the approximate boundary between the lava flows of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa...

An engineer for a local road-construction contractor recently called the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory to report his company's...

On May 1, 2000, President Clinton announced the United States' decision to stop degrading Global Positioning System (GPS) accuracy. The act has made...

Mauna Kea's peaceful appearance is misleading. The volcano is not dead. It erupted many times between 60,000 and 4,000 years ago, and some periods of...

"Why should I believe something I can't see, especially since I already don't believe so many things that I can see?" This verbal barb is sometimes...

Mosquitoes are not native to the Hawaiian Islands. Anyone driven away from an outdoor activity or rudely awakened by a biting mosquito would agree...

May 18th marks the 20th anniversary of the catastrophic eruption of Mount St. Helens that laid waste to over 540 square km (200 sq mi) of forest...

Kīlauea is a magnet to volcanologists, visitors, and television production companies alike, drawn from around the word by the spell of its eruptions...

Mauna Loa Volcano last erupted 1984. Lava flows from vents in its northeast rift zone reached within seven kilometers (four miles) of Hilo. When and...