Volcano Watch

Last week Donald ("Don") Swanson was sworn in as the new Scientist-In-Charge of the US Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Don replaces...

On January 3, 1997, Kīlauea's east rift zone began its 15th year of continuous eruption, the longest rift-zone eruption in written history.

As 1996 draws to a close, we can look back and reflect on the tumultuous year that the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory...

Volcanoes, glacial deposits, and faults related to huge undersea landslides are three of the remarkable geologic features depicted on a colorful new U...

The standard question I get asked by my `ohana and friends is, "What you taking up in college?" I reply, "Geology," and the first thing that comes out...

Last Thursday, scientists at HVO's sister observatory in Vancouver, Washington (the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory, or CVO) received a distress...

Much has been said in past columns about the volcanic and seismic hazards on the Big Island, but what about the hazards on the other islands?

Visitors to the lava viewing area at the end of the Chain of Craters road in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park travel over one of the largest fault...

The eruption on Kīlauea's east rift zone has continued with little change since mid-summer. Lava issues at a rate of 6 cubic yards per second from a...

William D. Westervelt, in his 1916 book "Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes", recounted a story about the origin of the two hills called "Na Pu`u a Pele,"...

The shape of active volcanoes is constantly changing. Large movements occur during dike intrusions, large earthquakes, or landslides. 

Early last week, C. Barry Raleigh, Dean of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, announced that the...

While scientists in Hawaii have been investigating the recent activity of Lō‘ihi Volcano beneath 3000 ft of seawater, in Iceland they're watching an...

USGS geologist Tina Neal reports from HVO's sister observatory in Anchorage (AVO) that Pavlof, the recently awakened volcano at the tip of Alaska...

Scientists from the University of Hawai`i at Manoa are once again engaged in a research cruise over Lo`ihi, the submarine volcano southeast of the...

The U.S. Geological Survey's Volcano Hazards Program funds the operations of three volcano observatories in the United States. They are the Hawaiian...

The current Kīlauea East Rift Zone eruption, which began in January 1983, continues without significant changes. 

The primary mission of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) is to evaluate earthquake and volcanic hazards and provide timely information to the...

Lava flows can travel long distances if they develop insulating conduits for transporting fresh molten lava to the flowfront. These conduits are, of...

In a double handful of molten magma (weighing about a pound), there is less than a tenth of an ounce, by weight, of dissolved gas—roughly the same...