To help improve data quality, shallow boreholes are being drilled that will house new instruments and allow them to be thermally insulated. These new seismometers have both broadband and strong motion capabilities, and the seismic data quality is proving to be excellent, according to researcher technicians with the University of Hawaiʻi.
Kīlauea is one of the most active volcanoes on Earth, with a majority of its eruptions occurring at its summit or one of its two rift zones, the East Rift Zone and Southwest Rift Zone. The Southwest Rift Zone hasn’t erupted since New Year’s Eve 1974; almost exactly 49 years ago.
There was no tsunami generated by a 4.1 magnitude earthquake reported at 4:27 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 23, 2023 about 8 miles southwest of Volcano on Hawaiʻi Island at a depth of 17 miles below sea level.
Here in Hawaiʻi nei, we don’t have the dramatically changing leaf colors and brisk temperatures that mark the arrival of Fall. And as October arrived this year, our night skies were dark, with no warm orange glow indicative of lava erupting on the surface.