The U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) recorded a magnitude-4.4 earthquake located beneath Kīlauea Volcano’s south flank on Sunday, December 20, at 10:36 p.m. HST.
The earthquake was centered about 14 km (8.7 miles) south of Fern Forest, near the Hōlei Pali area of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park at a depth of 6 km (4 miles). A map showing its location is posted on the HVO website at http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hvo/earthquakes/. More details are available at the National Earthquake Information Center website at https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/hv72294777/
Weak to light shaking, with maximum Intensity of IV, has been reported across the Island of Hawai‘i. At that intensity, significant damage to buildings or structures is not expected. The USGS “Did you feel it?” service (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/dyfi/) received over 500 felt reports within the first hour of the earthquake.
- More details at: USGS Kilauea webpage
Questions
- Why did this video talk about volume? What volumes are important for volcanoes?
- What angles did this video talk about? Why are these angles important?
- Do you trust the evidence in this video? Why or why not?
Live Tour of Eruption Dec 20 at 5am ET (highlighted)
December 21 Volcano Update
December 23 Update
The volcano is now filling up the caldera (the hollowed out top of a volcano). There are some cool volume ideas here. Note that they discuss “cubic feet” and “gallons”. These are two measurements of space that you can see easily around you. (How could you make a 1 cubic foot space?)
Christmas Update
Volcanoes don’t stop on holidays! The lava lake is now 44 stories tall! Check out this cool page from the U.S. Geologic Service that shows cool pictures and a slider:
- https://www.usgs.gov/center-news/photo-and-video-chronology-k-lauea-december-25-2020
The live webcam is sneakily boring, but you can see the smoke coming up from the volcano right now!
- https://www.nps.gov/subjects/air/webcams.htm?site=havo
The recent update does a good job showing what has changed. I was most surprised by the rocky island floating in the middle of the lava pool. I hadn’t heard of that before!
December 27 Update and Video STEM Lab
The lava dropped 7 feet today! (Listen closely to figure out why.) I thought it was interesting that the lava fountains are spraying 32 feet into the air. That’s like throwing a football over a house but instead of a football it’s a molten boulder!
This lab may not have the coolest beginning but the set up is interesting and the result is very cool.
December 29 Update
January 8th Update
They say it’s “active”, but it’s more lazy these days!
Overview of Kilauea
A short video explaining the 2018 Kilauea lava outpouring. The end of the video talks about their “Volcano Day” thought experiment which is their make-believe way of getting people to pay attention to volcanoes.
This TV show highlights the people that study and document the volcano. It’s cool because they get right up to the lava, and the way they work with the lava helps us understand what lava really is. (Big idea question: Why is it called “living Earth”?)
This shorter video from the Smithsonian Channel shows how the lava is created and moves deep within this volcano.
Although we think of tall volcanoes, the lower rift area of Hawaii reminds us that the lava finds many ways to create new land on the surface.
