Volcano Watch — Stressed out: Hawaiian volcanoes are heavy
Release Date:
July 22, 2021
Many people living in the Hawaiian Islands are accustomed to feeling occasional earthquakes since the State of Hawaii is one of the most seismically active locations in the United States. Unlike some other earthquake-prone places in the U.S., for example California, where the earthquakes are related to tectonic plates sliding past each other, our earthquakes are related to volcanoes.
Volcano Watch is a weekly article and activity update written by U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists and affiliates.
The three main causes for earthquakes here in Hawaii are: 1) movement of magma under active volcanoes; 2) sliding of volcanoes’ flanks along the surface that separates the ancient oceanic crust and overlying volcanoes; and 3) bending or flexing of the Earth’s crust and upper mantle in response to the weight of the overlying volcanoes.