#Maunaloa

On Sept. 14–16, 2026, a set of six new eruptive fissure vents opened at Kīlauea summit along the western wall of Halemaʻumaʻu. These vents opened after a period of repressurization of the summit magma storage system that had taken place since the end of episode 54 of the ongoing summit eruption in August.

A magnitude-4.1 earthquake occurred 3 miles south of Pāhala on Hawaiʻi Island at around 8:36 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. The earthquake occurred at a depth of 8 miles below sea level, according to the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. HVO scientists say the earthquake had no apparent impact on either Maunaloa or Kīlauea volcanoes.

On Sunday, Sept. 13, 8 a.m. HST, a magnitude-4.0 earthquake occurred 2 miles south of Pāhala on the Island of Hawaiʻi at a depth of 8 miles below sea level. The earthquake had no apparent impact on either Maunaloa or Kīlauea volcanoes, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

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

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-3.6 earthquake occurred 9 miles south of the village of Volcano on the Island of Hawaiʻi at 8:29 a.m. on Wednesday, June 24, 2026. The quake occurred at a depth of 5 miles below sea level, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

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.

This past March, a team of US Geological Survey scientists—two of whom travelled from Hawaiʻi—visited El Salvador in Central America for volcanological field studies and a workshop on lava flow hazards. Exchanges like this help to improve awareness of volcanic hazards in other countries, and they enable the USGS to better understand volcanoes in our own backyard.

Volcano Watch: While eruptions at the summit of Kīlauea most frequently occur within Halemaʻumaʻu, they can occur outside of the modern caldera as well.

Geochemical analysis of erupted tephra samples over the past decade help scientists understand the temperature of Kīlauea’s shallow magma system under the summit—and things have been “heating up.”

The Volcano Observatory Notice to Aviation is a notification product used by volcano observatories globally to inform the aviation community (pilots, air traffic managers, dispatchers, meteorologists, and airlines) of volcanic activity that could pose a hazard to aviation. An upcoming change in message formatting will improve the way that the aviation community gets this information.

Maunaloa’s Volcano Alert Level is at Normal and Hawaiian Volcano Observatory expects to see changes such as increased seismicity or gas emissions before any future eruption; keeping a close eye on the volcanoes even during quiet times can teach important lessons that will inform interpretations and decisions as conditions change.

Visual observations have been a backbone in studies of volcanoes, from 2,000 years ago to now. They remain fundamental to understanding how volcanoes work, and technological advancements, such as livestreaming cameras, allow volcanic eruptions to be viewed from around the world. 

A magnitude-4.2 earthquake reported at 11:37 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 26, occurred 1 mile northwest of Pāhala on the Island of Hawaiʻi at a depth of 21 miles below sea level. Scientists with the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory say the earthquake was part of the ongoing deep swarm beneath Pāhala that began about 7 years ago and is not directly related to volcanic activity.

Kīlauea summit region has been remarkably quiet, from an earthquake standpoint, since the current eruption began on the night of Dec. 23, 2024. Since the end of episode 40 on the evening of Jan. 12, however, nearly a dozen small earthquake swarms have occurred involving earthquakes 1–2.5 miles beneath Halemaʻumaʻu and the summit caldera of Kīlauea.

While the mid-20th century episodic eruption and current ongoing eruption within the summit caldera of Kīlauea volcano on the Big Island share similarities, there also are several differences.