Hawaiian Volcano Observatory summary 88. Part 1 seismic data, January to December 1988
No abstract available.
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Mauna Loa--history, hazards and risk of living with the world's largest volcano
Mauna Loa on the Island Hawaiʻi is the world’s largest volcano. People residing on its flanks face many hazards that come with living on or near an active volcano, including lava flows, explosive eruptions, volcanic smog, damaging earthquakes, and local tsunami (giant seawaves). The County of Hawaiʻi (Island of Hawaiʻi) is the fastest growing County in the State of Hawaii. Its expanding population and increasing development mean that risk from volcano hazards will continue to grow. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) closely monitor and study Mauna Loa Volcano to enable timely warning of hazardous activity and help protect lives and property.
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Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Summary 92. Part 1, seismic data, January to December 1992
No abstract available.
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Chasing lava: a geologist's adventures at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
A lively account of the three years (1969-1972) spent by geologist Wendell Duffield working at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory at Kilauea, one of the world's more active volcanoes. Abundantly illustrated in b&w and color, with line drawings and maps, as well. Volcanologists and general readers alike will enjoy author Wendell Duffield's report from Kilauea--home of Pele, the goddess of fire and volcanoes. Duffield's narrative encompasses everything from the scientific (his discovery that the movements of cooled lava on a lava lake mimic the movements of the earth's crust, providing an accessible model for understanding plate tectonics) to the humorous (his dog's discovery of a snake on the supposedly snake-free island) to the life-threatening (a colleague's plunge into molten lava). This charming account of living and working at Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, is sure to be a delight.
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Lava lake activity at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano in 2016
The ongoing summit eruption at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i, began in March 2008 with the formation of the Overlook crater, within Halema‘uma‘u Crater. As of late 2016, the Overlook crater contained a large, persistently active lava lake (250 × 190 meters). The accessibility of the lake allows frequent direct observations, and a robust geophysical monitoring network closely tracks subtle changes at the summit. These conditions present one of the best opportunities worldwide for understanding persistent lava lake behavior and the geophysical signals associated with open-vent basaltic eruptions. In this report, we provide a descriptive and visual summary of lava lake activity during 2016, a year consisting of continuous lava lake activity. The lake surface was composed of large black crustal plates separated by narrow incandescent spreading zones. The dominant motion of the surface was normally from north to south, but spattering produced transient disruptions to this steady motion. Spattering in the lake was common, consisting of one or more sites on the lake margin. The Overlook crater was continuously modified by the deposition of spatter (often as a thin veneer) on the crater walls, with frequent collapses of this adhered lava into the lake. Larger collapses, involving lithic material from the crater walls, triggered several small explosive events that deposited bombs and lapilli around the Halema‘uma‘u Crater rim, but these did not threaten public areas. The lava lake level varied over several tens of meters, controlled primarily by changes in summit magma reservoir pressure (in part driven by magma supply rates) and secondarily by fluctuations in spattering and gas release from the lake (commonly involving gas pistoning). The lake emitted a persistent gas plume, normally averaging 1,000–8,000 metric tons per day (t/d) of sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), as well as a constant fallout of small juvenile and lithic particles, including Pele’s hair and tears. The gas emissions created volcanic air pollution (vog) that affected large areas of the Island of Hawai‘i. The summit eruption has been a major attraction for visitors in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. During 2016, the rising lake levels allowed the lake and its spattering to be more consistently visible from public viewing areas, enhancing the visitor experience. The U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) closely monitors the summit eruption and keeps emergency managers and the public informed of activity.
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Hawaiian Volcano Observatory summary 91. Part 1, Seismic data, January to December 1991
No abstract available.
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Technical-information products for a National Volcano Early Warning System
Technical outreach — distinct from general-interest and K-12 educational outreach — for volcanic hazards is aimed at providing usable scientific information about potential or ongoing volcanic activity to public officials, businesses, and individuals in support of their response, preparedness, and mitigation efforts. Within the context of a National Volcano Early Warning System (NVEWS) (Ewert et al., 2005), technical outreach is a critical process, transferring the benefits of enhanced monitoring and hazards research to key constituents who have to initiate actions or make policy decisions to lessen the hazardous impact of volcanic activity. This report discusses recommendations of the Technical-Information Products Working Group convened in 2006 as part of the NVEWS planning process. The basic charge to the Working Group was to identify a web-based, volcanological "product line" for NVEWS to meet the specific hazard-information needs of technical users. Members of the Working Group were: Marianne Guffanti (Chair), USGS, Reston VA Steve Brantley, USGS, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory HI Peter Cervelli, USGS, Alaska Volcano Observatory, Anchorage AK Chris Nye, Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys and Alaska Volcano Observatory, Fairbanks AK George Serafino, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Camp Springs MD Lee Siebert, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC Dina Venezky, USGS, Volcano Hazards Team, Menlo Park CA Lisa Wald, USGS, Earthquake Hazards Program, Golden CO
Open-File Report↗
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
Lava from Kilauea volcano flowing through a forest in the Royal Gardens subdivision, Hawai'i, in February 2008. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) monitors the volcanoes of Hawai'i and is located within Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park. HVO is one of five USGS Volcano Hazards Program observatories that monitor U.S. volcanoes for science and public safety. Learn more about Kilauea and HVO at http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov.
General Information Product↗
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory: A natural laboratory for studying basaltic volcanism
In the beginning of the 20th century, geologist Thomas A. Jaggar, Jr., argued that, to fully understand volcanic and associated hazards, the expeditionary mode of studying eruptions only after they occurred was inadequate. Instead, he fervently advocated the use of permanent observatories to record and measure volcanic phenomena—at and below the surface—before, during, and after eruptions to obtain the basic scientific information needed to protect people and property from volcanic hazards. With the crucial early help of American volcanologist Frank Alvord Perret and the Hawaiian business community, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) was established in 1912, and Jaggar’s vision became reality. From its inception, HVO’s mission has centered on several goals: (1) measuring and documenting the seismic, eruptive, and geodetic processes of active Hawaiian volcanoes (principally Kīlauea and Mauna Loa); (2) geological mapping and dating of deposits to reconstruct volcanic histories, understand island evolution, and determine eruptive frequencies and volcanic hazards; (3) systematically collecting eruptive products, including gases, for laboratory analysis; and (4) widely disseminating observatory-acquired data and analysis, reports, and hazard warnings to the global scientific community, emergency-management authorities, news media, and the public. The long-term focus on these goals by HVO scientists, in collaboration with investigators from many other organizations, continues to fulfill Jaggar’s career-long vision of reducing risks from volcanic and earthquake hazards across the globe. This chapter summarizes HVO’s history and some of the scientific achievements made possible by this permanent observatory over the past century as it grew from a small wooden structure with only a small staff and few instruments to a modern, well-staffed, world-class facility with state-of-the-art monitoring networks that constantly track volcanic and earthquake activity. The many successes of HVO, from improving basic knowledge about basaltic volcanism to providing hands-on experience and training for hundreds of scientists and students and serving as the testing ground for new instruments and technologies, stem directly from the acquisition, integration, and analysis of multiple datasets that span many decades of observations of frequent eruptive activity. HVO’s history of the compilation, interpretation, and communication of long-term volcano monitoring and eruption data (for instance, seismic, geodetic, and petrologic-geochemical data and detailed eruption chronologies) is perhaps unparalleled in the world community of volcano observatories. The discussion and conclusions drawn in this chapter, which emphasize developments since the 75th anniversary of HVO in 1987, are general and retrospective and are intended to provide context for the more detailed, topically focused chapters of this volume.
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Volcanic Air Pollution - A Hazard in Hawai'i
Noxious sulfur dioxide gas and other pollutants emitted from Kilauea Volcano on the Island of Hawai'i react with oxygen and atmospheric moisture to produce volcanic smog (vog) and acid rain. Vog poses a health hazard by aggravating preexisting respiratory ailments, and acid rain damages crops and can leach lead into household water supplies. The U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory is closely monitoring gas emissions from Kilauea and working with health professionals and local officials to better understand volcanic air pollution and to enhance public awareness of this hazard.
Fact Sheet↗
Tohoku-Oki Earthquake Tsunami Runup and Inundation Data for Sites Around the Island of Hawaiʻi
At 0546 U.t.c. March 11, 2011, a M w 9.0 ("great") earthquake occurred near the northeast coast of Honshu Island, Japan, generating a large tsunami that devastated the east coast of Japan and impacted many far-flung coastal sites around the Pacific Basin. After the earthquake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami alert for the State of Hawaii, followed by a tsunami-warning notice from the local State Civil Defense on March 10, 2011 (Japan is 19 hours ahead of Hawaii). After the waves passed the islands, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) measured inundation (maximum inland distance of flooding), runup (elevation at maximum extent of inundation) and took photographs in coastal areas around the Island of Hawaiʻi. Although the damage in West Hawaiʻi is well documented, HVO's mapping revealed that East Hawaiʻi coastlines were also impacted by the tsunami. The intent of this report is to provide runup and inundation data for sites around the Island of Hawaiʻi.
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Catalog of Tephra samples from Kilauea's summit eruption, March-December 2008
The opening of a new vent within Halema'uma'u Crater in March 2008 ended a 26-year period of no eruptive activity at the summit of Kilauea Volcano. It also heralded the first explosive activity at Kilauea's summit since 1924 and the first of eight discrete explosive events in 2008. At the onset of the eruption, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) initiated a rigorous program of sample collection to provide a temporally constrained suite of tephra samples for petrographic, geochemical, and isotopic studies. Petrologic studies help us understand conditions of magma generation at depth; processes related to transport, storage, and mixing of magma within the shallow summit region; and specific circumstances leading to explosive eruptions. This report provides a catalog of tephra samples erupted at Kilauea's summit from March 19, 2008, through the end of 2008. The Kilauea 2008 Summit Sample Catalog is tabulated in the accompanying Microsoft Excel file, of2009-1134.xls (four file types linked on right). The worksheet in this file provides sampling information and sample descriptions. Contextual information for this catalog is provided below and includes (1) a narrative of 2008 summit eruptive activity, (2) a description of sample collection methods, (3) a scheme for characterizing a diverse range in tephra lithology, and (4) an explanation of each category of sample information (column headers) in the Microsoft Excel worksheet.
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Preliminary analyses of volcanic hazards at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i, 2017–2018
From 2017 to 2018, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) responded to ongoing and changing eruptions at Kīlauea Volcano as part of its mission to monitor volcanic processes, issue warnings of dangerous activity, and assess volcanic hazards. To formalize short-term hazards assessments—and, in some cases, issue prognoses for future activity—and make results discoverable to both the public and the authorities, HVO released reports online. These reports were published rapidly, received peer review under the USGS’s Fundamental Science Practice guidelines, and were intended to address a focused question posed by one or more cooperating agencies—for this reason, they were called “cooperator reports.” This Open-File Report concatenates four such products issued in 2017 and 2018 into a single publication. These reports have been reformatted and lightly edited for clarity, but the content has not otherwise been changed from the versions first publicly released.
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Selected Images of the Pu'u 'O'o-Kupaianaha Eruption, 1983-1997
The 100 images in this CD?ROM have been selected from the collections of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory as enduring favorites of the staff, researchers, media, designers, and the public over time. They represent photographs of a variety of geological phenomena and eruptive events, chosen for their content, quality of exposure, and aesthetic appeal. The number was kept to 100 to maintain the high resolution desirable. Since 1997, digital imagery has been the predominant mode of photographically documenting the eruption. Many of these photos, from 1998 to the present, are viewable on the website: http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/update/archive/ Episode numbers are given as E-numbers in parentheses before each caption that pertains to the Pu`u `O`o?Kupaianaha eruption; details of the episodes are given in table 1. Hawaiian words and place names are listed below to facilitate searching. All images included in this collection are owned by the U.S. Geological Survey, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, and are in the public domain. Therefore, no permission or fee is required for their use. Please include photo credit for the photographer and the U.S. Geological Survey. We assume no responsibility for the modification of these images.
Data Series↗
Views of a century of activity at Kīlauea Caldera—A visual essay
The 2018 eruption of Kīlauea Volcano marked the end of the first sustained period of volcanic activity at Halemaʻumaʻu Crater in 94 years. The views of the lava lake (informally named “Overlook,” nestled within Halemaʻumaʻu) lasted for a decade and seemed timeless. But as we were recently reminded, the summit of Kīlauea is part of a dynamic system that has provided countless new views to observers over the centuries. This visual essay features a few of the many scenes recorded by early observers at the volcano, from the first visits by westerners in 1823 through the explosive eruption of 1924. The early images left by casual visitors, artists, and photographers raise many questions: What is shown? Where is this? Who captured the scene and when? How accurate is the portrayal? Where possible, we attempt to answer these questions and provide interpretations of the images featured. In 1912, the nature of observations at Kīlauea changed when Thomas A. Jaggar, Jr., and others occupied the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on a full-time basis. They began a visual and written record of what they saw, heard, and experienced that has continued to this day. We describe some of the early work of these scientists and photographers, and showcase the results.
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Hawaiian Volcano Observatory bulletins
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) Bulletin series was an informal publication issued between the years 1913 to 1929. Individual issues contain information on volcanic and earthquake activity, volcano research, and volcano monitoring in Hawaii, and issues often included photographs, sketches, and data plots. Information on volcanic activity at other locations is also occasionally included. The Bulletin series was published by HVO through the Hawaiian Volcano Research Association. Weekly Bulletins (initially called Reports) were issued between June 28, 1913, and July 1, 1914. Bulletins were issued monthly after July 1, 1914, though they were still named Weekly Bulletins until January 1919. Starting with the February 1919 issue, the Bulletins were named Monthly Bulletins, and they continued to be issued monthly until the series ceased in July 1929. During a single year, 1915, Seismometric Bulletins were also issued quarterly. These four issues contain summaries of seismic observations recorded by the then-nascent Whitney Laboratory of Seismology, located underground in a vault near the summit of Kīlauea. Two of the bulletins are misnumbered: • April 1916 volume IV no. 4 incorrectly says April 1915 volume III no. 4 • September 1916 volume IV no. 9 incorrectly says September 1916 volume VI no. 9
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Hawaiian Volcano Observatory bulletins - 1913
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) Bulletin series was an informal publication issued between the years 1913 to 1929. Individual issues contain information on volcanic and earthquake activity, volcano research, and volcano monitoring in Hawaii, and issues often included photographs, sketches, and data plots. Information on volcanic activity at other locations is also occasionally included. The Bulletin series was published by HVO through the Hawaiian Volcano Research Association. Weekly Bulletins (initially called Reports) were issued between June 28, 1913, and July 1, 1914. Bulletins were issued monthly after July 1, 1914, though they were still named Weekly Bulletins until January 1919. Starting with the February 1919 issue, the Bulletins were named Monthly Bulletins, and they continued to be issued monthly until the series ceased in July 1929. During a single year, 1915, Seismometric Bulletins were also issued quarterly. These four issues contain summaries of seismic observations recorded by the then-nascent Whitney Laboratory of Seismology, located underground in a vault near the summit of Kīlauea. Two of the bulletins are misnumbered: • April 1916 volume IV no. 4 incorrectly says April 1915 volume III no. 4 • September 1916 volume IV no. 9 incorrectly says September 1916 volume VI no. 9
Hawaii↗
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory bulletins - 1914
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) Bulletin series was an informal publication issued between the years 1913 to 1929. Individual issues contain information on volcanic and earthquake activity, volcano research, and volcano monitoring in Hawaii, and issues often included photographs, sketches, and data plots. Information on volcanic activity at other locations is also occasionally included. The Bulletin series was published by HVO through the Hawaiian Volcano Research Association. Weekly Bulletins (initially called Reports) were issued between June 28, 1913, and July 1, 1914. Bulletins were issued monthly after July 1, 1914, though they were still named Weekly Bulletins until January 1919. Starting with the February 1919 issue, the Bulletins were named Monthly Bulletins, and they continued to be issued monthly until the series ceased in July 1929. During a single year, 1915, Seismometric Bulletins were also issued quarterly. These four issues contain summaries of seismic observations recorded by the then-nascent Whitney Laboratory of Seismology, located underground in a vault near the summit of Kīlauea. Two of the bulletins are misnumbered: • April 1916 volume IV no. 4 incorrectly says April 1915 volume III no. 4 • September 1916 volume IV no. 9 incorrectly says September 1916 volume VI no. 9
Hawaii↗