Volcano Watch

Here's a question for you trivia aficionados. Since written records began in 1823, what is the longest period of time without an eruption in Kīlauea's...

Kīlauea's south slope presents a spectacular drive by motorcar because the highway descends steeply to reach the coastal plain.

In 1916, Thomas Jaggar, renowned scientist and founder of HVO, wrote, in a foreword to "Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes" by Westervelt, that "Everything...

Many visitors come to the summit of Kīlauea, take a quick look into the caldera, say, "Hmmm, that's nice," shrug their shoulders, and move on. All...

For the past two months, reports of large earthquakes and the havoc they cause seem to be constantly in the news. Earthquakes in Turkey, Taiwan...

At the end of their shield-building stage, the summits of Hawaiian volcanoes commonly have large collapsed areas called calderas. Both Kīlauea and...

For the past two weeks, people have been asking, "Why isn't the eruption going at full speed?," and "Why isn't lava going into the ocean?"
 

The last two editions of this column have dealt with the intrusion of magma into the upper east rift zone of Kīlauea on September 12 and with the...

One of the ways we monitor Kīlauea's activity is by studying the release of volcanic gases. Gases like sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide are trapped...

Lava and lightning occasionally ignite fires in Hawaiian forests and shrublands where grass or other fine plant fuels are abundant and when the...

In our efforts to refine the geologic map of Haleakalā, we recently obtained radiocarbon ages from the youngest lava flows, those at La Perouse Bay...

The Hokule`a set sail from Hilo in June on an eight-month round-trip voyage to Rapa Nui (Easter Island). The crew of this double-hulled sailing canoe...

The August 17, 1999, magnitude 7.4 earthquake in Turkey leveled thousands of buildings and resulted in over 10,000 deaths. This was the largest...

In the wild west of the 19th century, stagecoaches often had someone aboard whose job was to warn and protect the driver from marauding gangs and wild...

Kīlauea Volcano has been erupting nearly continuously for the past 6,068 days since activity started on January 3, 1983. Lava first entered the ocean...

How long do explosive periods last at Kīlauea? Early researchers concluded that the Keanakako`i Ash—the rocky deposits on the ground surface around...

All of sudden, there's an earthquake...or was it an earthquake? Where was it? How big was it? Does it signal the start of an eruption or magma shiftin...

On Friday, March 27, 1868, at 5:30 a.m., several whaling ships anchored in Kawaihae Harbor noticed a dense column of fume reflected by a bright light...

The islands of the Pacific are some of the most isolated in the world and have produced distinct floras and faunas. Endemism, whereby plants and...

Visitors to the Big Island's southeast coast commonly see a steam plume, the telltale sign that Kīlauea's eruption is sending lava into the ocean.