Unified Interior Regions

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 weight as a pinch of table salt. Yet this tiny amount of gas can drive spectacular lava fountains hundreds of feet into the air. 

Floating hydrophones and sonobuoys recorded the crackling and grinding noises that are often indicative of an ongoing submarine eruption, but the University of Hawaii Pisces V dive team and their USGS, Bishop Museum, and University of Washington collaborators found no red lava or active eruptive vents as they explored the underwater world of Lo`ihi volcano last week.

In response to the intense off-shore earthquake swarm that began on July 16, scientists at the University of Hawaii (UH) received funding for a research cruise to investigate possible changes at Lo`ihi.

It was only 42 years ago that Lo`ihi and four other seamounts were discovered during a bathymetric survey of the area south and southeast of the Big Island by the U.S.S. Patapsco.

The ground's surface around the active Hawaiian volcanoes Kīlauea and Mauna Loa is constantly changing. Lava flows laminate their sides during active eruptions.

On Wednesday, July 17, a 10-year-old boy slipped into a large crack in the Sulphur Banks - Steaming Flats area of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Unfortunately, the crack was also a vent for steam, which scalded the young visitor and caused second-degree burns.
 

The 13-year-old eruption along Kīlauea's East Rift Zone has continued unabated since the pause from May 30 to June 4. Over a period of 18 hours on May 29-30, lava gradually stopped issuing into the tube system from the vent on the flank of the Pu`u `O`o cone.

The long-standing eruption of Kīlauea Volcano continues unabated this week as lava tubes spill 14 million cubic feet of lava per day into the ocean at Kamoamoa on Hawaii's southeast coastline. Flows have inundated the area almost continuously since 1992.

Each year, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory records thousands of earthquakes with its island-wide network of seismographs. Often, many of these earthquakes are directly related to volcanic activity and indicate movement of magma beneath the summits or rift zones of the volcanoes. 

The eruption along Kīlauea's East Rift Zone continues after a pause from May 30 to June 4. Over a period of 18 hours on May 29-30, lava gradually stopped issuing into the tube system from the vent on the flank of the Pu`u `O`o cone.

When Polynesian voyagers reached Hawaii, they found volcanic islands much like their homeland in the South Pacific. Geologically speaking, the Marquesas, Tuamotus, Society Islands, Cook Islands, and Austral Islands are about the same age and made of the same kind of volcanic rocks as are the Hawaiian islands.