#Big Island News

Officials with the US Army Garrison Hawai‘i are waiting for the formal rejection of the Final Environmental Impact Statement by the state Land Board before deciding what to do next to try to extend its lease on the Big Island.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory remains steadfast and vigilant as lava fountaining episodes continue at the summit of the Big Island’s Kīlauea volcano, maintaining its monitoring and livestreaming of the volcano to document the eruption’s evolution, inform hazard assessments and apprise the public of ongoing volcanic activity.

Kīlauea summit has shown little net change in pressurization since the eruption began Dec. 23, 2024, indicating the summit has been in some level of equilibrium. As long as that equilibrium is maintained, the episodic eruption at the summit is likely to continue.

When magma moves into the rift zone of a Hawaiian volcano, there is understandably a lot of excitement and apprehension. How far will the magma go? Will it erupt? But even long after the activity stops — regardless of whether it erupts — the subsurface magma continues to have a noticeable impact on the landscape.

There seems to be enough evidence of some sort of collapse happening, which remains the only such event in the volcano’s documented history, simultaneously with a dramatic eruption that caused Hawai’i’s largest ever recorded earthquake, a magnitude-7.9 temblor that resulted in a tsunami and landslide in Ka’u that killed more than 100 people and lava flows that inundated 9 square miles.

The suspect, who reportedly shot a police officer in Hilo, eluded capture till Sunday afternoon.

New University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa study discovery also highlights that as sea level rises, there is an even greater risk for flooding in low-lying areas sooner than scientists anticipated, putting infrastructure, businesses and communities in jeopardy.

By measuring the density of carbon dioxide trapped in bubbles formed in crystals as magma is under pressure underground, scientists can determine the depth at which the gas became trapped, and hence the depth of magma storage before eruption.

Several past eruptions were characterized by similar lava fountaining episodes, including at the start of the Puʻuʻōʻō eruption in 1983, the start of the Maunaulu eruption in 1969 and the 1959 Kīlauea Iki eruption.

The bill secures that no law or state action can interfere with the ability to obtain birth control, including methods like IUDs and emergency contraceptives. 

28-year-old Isaiah Kaleo Jiaan Fourshey allegedly shot and killed his ex-girlfriend’s 25-year-old sister Latisha Soares early the morning of March 4 at her Mountain View residence.

A team at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa developed an artificial intelligence system that uses multiple types of sensors to detect and prevent potential crashes at intersections.

Captivating lava fountains burst from either one or both of the vents during each eruptive episode. However, as fascinating as those episodes are, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory are equally as interested in what’s happening beneath the surface between episodes.

Pele’s hair is the name for the strands of volcanic glass that are created when globs of liquid lava are stretched apart during an eruption.

An agriculture inspector from the Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture Plant Quarantine Branch in Kona retrieved the animal early Sunday morning and arranged for it to be transported to Honolulu. This was the second opossum in as many months to be captured in the islands.

Summit tiltmeters on the Big Island volcano reversed from deflationary tilt to inflationary tilt at about the same time the lava fountain shut down Friday. Rapid change from deflation to inflation at the onset of each of the eruptive episodes suggests another episode could erupt in the coming days to weeks if summit magma chambers repressurize sufficiently.

People around the world greet the New Year with fireworks and other celebrations. Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park visitors got to greet 2025 with displays of lava fountaining from the southwest part of Kaluapele, the summit caldera of Kīlauea volcano.

Hawai‘i joins 12 other states leading the way with expanded continuous Medicaid coverage for children, alongside Colorado, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah and Washington.

Hawai‘i Emergency Management Agency officials also noted in their announcement that a test of the live audio broadcast segment of the Emergency Alert System will accompany the sounding test of the sirens at roughly the same time, in cooperation with the Hawai‘i broadcast industry.

The newsite posted nearly 1,500 stories this year, many of which involved people with connection to the university system making headlines, including Miss Aloha Hula winners, a contestant on “The Voice” and someone who once had a date with Marcia Brady.