#hawaiian volcano observatory

Next time you listen to a scientist provide updates about ongoing volcanic activity, see a map showing locations of earthquakes or check the livestream cameras at Kīlauea summit for lava, take a moment to appreciate the team that works every day to keep the data flowing.

Scientists with the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory say today’s (Aug. 17, 2026) magnitude-4.1 earthquake, located 10 miles south-southeast of Hōnaunau-Nāpōʻopoʻo on the Island of Hawaiʻi was likely an aftershock of the magnitude-6.0 that occurred on May 23, 2026.

Ocean swells are constantly beating on the ocean floor. This nonstop drumming creates continuous signals that travel through Earth and recorded on seismometers around the globe, including here in Hawai‘i; changes in the speed of these ocean noise signals can give us clues about volcanic activity.

An estimated 6 million cubic yards of lava erupted and covered about 40% to 50% of the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater floor; An abrupt switch from deflation to inflation at the summit coincided with the end of Episode 53 fountaining, indicating another lava fountaining episode is likely.

Magno, who navigated the Hawaiʻi Island response to volcanic eruptions from multiple volcanoes, the COVID-19 pandemic, fires, earthquakes, tsunami warnings, hurricanes and historic kona low storms, retires effective Aug. 1.

Lava fountaining episode 52 in Halemaʻumaʻu at the summit of Kīlauea began around 7:10 p.m. HST July 28 and ended at 2:36 a.m. HST on July 29, 2026, after 7.4 hours of continuous fountaining from the north vent.

Kīlauea’s summit eruption could produce another episode of lava fountaining as early as this weekend, while a new survey of Mauna Loa shows the neighboring volcano continues to slowly inflate, according to the US Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. The observatory reported that Kīlauea has been erupting episodically within its summit caldera since Dec. 23, […]

The easiest answer to the question of whether lava will flow out of the caldera is — it depends!

Island of Hawaiʻi residents may have felt shaking recently from large, deep earthquakes. Deep earthquakes like this have been recorded since the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) first started monitoring Hawaii’s volcanoes in 1912. 

Professor Bruce Houghton retired in 2025 from University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa after 25 years as the Gordon A. Macdonald Chairperson of Volcanology, but although he retired and returned to New Zealand, his connections to volcanology in Hawaiʻi remain strong.

The summit eruption in Halemaʻumaʻu has resumed with weak precursory spattering, no overflows have occurred at this time. The onset of episode 50 fountaining will most likely occur between today, June 26, and tomorrow, June 27. Fountaining episodes typically last less than 12 hours but ash can remain in the air longer depending on wind and weather.

A magnitude-3.16 earthquake occurred 8 miles south of Hōnaunau-Nāpōʻopoʻo on the Island of Hawaiʻi at a depth of 13 miles below sea level at 8:34 a.m. HST on June 25, 2026. 

A magnitude-3.8 earthquake occurred 13 miles south of Hōnaunau-Nāpōʻopoʻo on the Island of Hawaiʻi at a depth of 3 miles below sea level at 6:20 a.m. HST on Monday, June 22, 2026. 

Over the last year and a half, the historic episodic eruption at the summit of Kīlauea has had 49 episodes of lava fountaining, with episode 50 in the forecast for next week. But why are these individual fountaining events considered episodes instead of separate eruptions, and what’s the difference?

“This earthquake is part of the seismic swarm under the Pāhala area, which has been going on since 2019,” according to the HVO. “Earthquakes in this region have been observed at least as far back as the 1960s.”

April marked the 100-year anniversary of Mauna Loa’s 1926 Southwest Rift Zone eruption. This eruption is most remembered for the destruction of Ho‘ōpūloa village, a few miles north of Miloliʻi Bay. It also marks the first known instance of aerial photography of an advancing Hawaiian lava flow, and well-organized police-led eruption crowd management.

The HVO reports Tuesday’s earthquake was similar in origin but unrelated to the magnitude-6 that occurred on May 22 and the magnitude-4.6 that occurred on June 2 on the west side of the island.

Large eruptive plumes produced by the ongoing episodic summit eruption of Kīlauea volcano, which contain high concentrations of volcanic gases and tephra, and wind direction are the key to this answer.

The base of Mauna Loa sitting on top of the old oceanic crust is only 6 miles below sea level, so the major magnitude-6.0 earthquake the night of Friday, May 22, happened deeper than the volcano — even deeper than the base of the ocean crust, which is bent downward by the weight of the Hawaiian Island chain.

Episode 47 of lava fountaining during the ongoing episodic summit eruption of the Big Island volcano tied the 1983-86 initial phase of the Pu‘u‘ō‘ō eruption on Kīlauea, which had a total of 47 events, for the most fountaining episodes ever recorded — so far — at the volcano; so how do these historic eruptions compare?