Kamaʻehuakanaloa (formerly Lōʻihi Seamount, which was renamed in July 2021 by the Hawaiʻi Board on Geographic Names), a submarine Hawaiian volcano located about 20 miles off the south coast of Hawaiʻi Island, has erupted at least five times in the last 150 years, according to new research led by Earth scientists at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. For the first time, scientists were able to estimate the ages of the most recent eruptions of Kamaʻehu, as well as the ages of eight older eruptions at this volcano going back about 2,000 years. The findings were published in .

Hawaiian volcanoes are thought to transition through a series of growth stages. Kamaʻehu is currently in the earliest submarine “pre-shield” stage of growth, whereas the active neighboring volcano Kīlauea is in its main shield-building stage.

“Kamaʻehu is the only active and exposed example of a pre-shield Hawaiian volcano,” said Aaron Pietruszka, lead author of the study and associate professor in the at ����Vlog�ٷ� ��ā�ԴDz�’s (SOEST). “On the other Hawaiian volcanoes, this early part of the volcanic history is covered by the great outpouring of lava that occurs during the shield stage. Thus, there is great interest in learning about the growth and evolution of Kamaʻehu.”

��������ʻ����’s eruption history

Previously, the only known and confirmed eruption of Kamaʻehu was one that occurred in 1996, an event that was only discovered because it coincided with a large swarm of earthquakes that were detected remotely by seismometers on Hawaiʻi Island.

“Seismometers can only be used to detect the ongoing active eruptions of submarine volcanoes because earthquakes are transient,” said Pietruszka. “In order to determine the ages of older eruptions at Kamaʻehu, we took a different approach. We used a mass spectrometer to measure tiny amounts of the isotope radium-226 in pieces of quenched glassy lava that were sampled from the seafloor outcrops of Kamaʻehu using a submersible.”

Magma naturally contains radium-226, which radioactively decays at a predictable rate. Pietruzska and co-authors used the amount of radium-226 in each sample to infer the approximate time elapsed since the lava was erupted on the seafloor, that is, the eruption age of the sample.

Pietruszka started this investigation many years ago as a postdoctoral researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science, after finishing his doctoral degree in Earth science from SOEST. Once he returned to ����Vlog�ٷ� Mānoa in 2019, he got access to submersible dive videos and photos around Kamaʻehu and had the information he needed to finish connecting the dots.

“The submersible dive images and videos provided independent confirmation of our estimates of eruption ages,” said Pietruszka. “The lavas with the freshest appearance also had the most radium-226, and vice versa for the lavas with the ‘older’ appearance, that is, fractured and broken, and/or covered with marine sediment. I was surprised to discover that Kamaʻehu had erupted five times within the last ~150 years, which implies a frequency of ~30 years between eruptions at this volcano. This is much slower than at Kīlauea, which erupts almost continuously (with infrequent pauses of only a few years).”

Chemical changes in lava

The chemistry of the lava erupted from Hawaiian volcanoes changes over time. The new eruption ages for the lavas from Kamaʻehu, coupled with measurements of lava chemistry, reveal that the timescale of variation in lava chemistry at this pre-shield volcano is about 1,200 years. In contrast, Kīlauea lava chemistry changes over a timescale of only a few years to decades, with a complete cycle over about 200 years.

“We think that the origin of this difference is related to the position of the two volcanoes over the Hawaiian hotspot,” said Pietruszka. “This is an area of Earth’s mantle that is rising toward the surface—a ‘mantle plume’ that ultimately melts to form the magma that supplies Hawaiian volcanoes. Models and other isotope data from thorium-230 suggest that the center of a mantle plume should rise faster than its margin. Our results—specifically, the factor of six longer timescale of variation in lava chemistry at Kamaʻehu—provides independent confirmation of this idea.”

The research team hopes to better understand how Hawaiian volcanoes work from their earliest growth stages to their full, and frequently active, maturity to help them understand the deep controls on volcanic eruptions that initiate within the mysterious, upwelling mantle plume under the Hawaiian hotspot.

–By Marcie Grabowski

On June 3, for the first time since 2019, the hosted by the (CSAV) at the , welcomed a class of 12 participants from around the world.

The eight-week summer course is designed to assist volcanologists and technicians from developing nations in attaining self-sufficiency in monitoring volcanoes. The field training on Hawaiʻi Island and in Vancouver, Washington, emphasizes volcano monitoring methods, both data collection and interpretation, in use by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The participants also learn proper use and maintenance of volcano monitoring instruments.

The program was initiated in 1991 as a collaborative effort among the ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo , the (HIGP) at ����Vlog�ٷ� ����ԴDz�, and the USGS . More than 30 individuals will be contributing to the course this year, with instruction provided by HIGP and ����Vlog�ٷ� ����ԴDz� faculty, and current and retired USGS staff from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Cascades Volcano Observatory and Alaska Volcano Observatory.

“Hawaiian volcanoes are among the most active in the world, but unlike violently explosive volcanoes, they can be approached and studied without significant risk,” said Don Thomas, director of CSAV and faculty member at HIGP in the ����Vlog�ٷ� ����ԴDz� . “As a result, the course and Hawaiʻi Island provide the ideal environment for practicing volcano monitoring techniques.”

Monitoring, analyzing and interpreting data

The curriculum covers available monitoring technology, but emphasizes technology that is accessible to the volcano observatories in participants’ home countries. Attendees learn to properly install seismic stations, precision GPS stations and tiltmeters; and analyze and interpret data from those types of equipment. They also practice monitoring and interpreting the chemistry of volcanic gas emissions; mapping lava flows and explosive deposits, and interpreting those maps in the context of eruption magnitude and risk; and assessing satellite remote sensing and thermal imagery.

“We also provide training on crisis management during a volcanic crisis: how to interact with the media during a crisis, how to educate the general public about volcanic hazards, and how to respond during a volcanic crisis,” said Thomas. “With this focus on forecasting and rapid response, we really aim to bolster volcano observatories around the world in their efforts to save lives and property.”

Connecting colleagues around the world

Since 1991, 264 from 30 countries have participated in the training program. Most attendees have been funded through the USGS Volcano Disaster Assistance Program with funding from USAID. The vast majority of participants are volcanologists or technicians actively monitoring volcanoes in their home countries. A typical cohort consists of trainees from five or six different countries, providing a valuable opportunity for international practitioners focused on volcanic hazards to connect.

“As the cohort progresses through the training program, they become colleagues with similar interests, work objectives and common challenges in fulfilling their volcano monitoring roles,” said Thomas. “After they return home, they have a network of colleagues that they can call on for help in problem-solving and brainstorming and dealing with the inevitable challenges that they’ll face in dealing with their home volcanoes.”

—By Marcie Grabowski

Earth scientists from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa were gifted a set of precious basalt samples collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) from the Kīlauea Iki lava lake between 1959 and 1988. Investigating these samples will provide new insights for understanding recent and future volcanic eruptions in Hawaiʻi.

“This set of lava core samples is one-of-a-kind. This type of multiple decade-long sampling of a magma body will unlikely be ever done again in Hawaiʻi or elsewhere,” said Tom Shea, earth sciences assistant professor in the ����Vlog�ٷ� Mānoa (SOEST).

In 1959, a large eruption filled an existing crater at the summit of Kīlauea with a lava lake. Over the next three decades, USGS drilled into this area to collect cores of cooling lava, noting the date, location and temperature of the rocks.

“This set of lava cores represents a remarkable, 30-year-long magma cooling experiment that enables us to track chemical changes in olivine through time, to see if they behave like faithful ‘crystal clocks’,” said Shea.

From thin sections to lava cores

Previously, Shea and his team had analyzed thin slices of these samples, shared by USGS collaborator Rosalind Helz. Olivine, the light green mineral common in basalt, acts as a type of crystal clock. It records progressive smearing of the boundaries between different elemental compositions, a change that occurred over the decades of cooling of the lava lake. Volcanologists typically use the distribution of chemical elements, from core to rim, to infer time since the eruption.

Nabila Nizam, a doctoral candidate in the SOEST , works with Shea on crystal clocks as part of a National Science Foundation-funded CAREER project, investigating how distinct chemical zoning in olivine grains gets progressively smeared with time. In the course of her work on the thin sections, she and Shea discovered that the Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park wanted to find a new home for some Kīlauea Iki drill cores. USGS collaborator Frank Trusdell worked hard with them on a drill core rescue mission.

“We set out on several trips to the National Park to characterize what was there, and clean and select some subsamples,” said Nizam. “Every box we opened was like viewing another surprise! Eventually, we shipped two full drill core sets (16 core boxes for each set) by boat to Honolulu earlier this year.”

These boxes of drill cores will be housed at SOEST and will be a part of research projects and available for appreciation.

“It’s thrilling to host this treasure trove of samples,” added Shea. “They have beautiful olivine crystals that will provide unmatched constraints on the rate at which different elements move within a mineral with time.”

The cores will allow the researchers to ground the theoretical cooling model that Earth scientists have been working with. With these samples, they know the exact timing and the temperature the lava lake was when the samples were collected.

–By Marcie Grabowksi

The eruption of Maunaloa has created a fiery living laboratory and real world classroom for students, faculty and staff at the .

Steve Lundblad, a professor, took his introductory geology class on an excursion two days after the first fissure opened to safely view the flow from Saddle Road. They based their observations at Gilbert Kahele Park.

“We talked about Maunaloa and Maunakea, and the Maunakea cinder cones surrounded by newer Maunaloa lava flows,” Lundblad explained. He expressed, students were mostly busy looking at the eruption through binoculars.

The curriculum of Lundblad’s class is designed to prepare students for further studies in geology. They study the features and materials that make up Earth, with emphasis on structures, various erosional and depositional processes, and the role of plate tectonics.

Lava sample study

Staff from the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS-HVO) continue to collect and bring samples of fresh lava to the ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo for analysis on the Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence spectrometer, commonly called the EDXRF machine, which analyzes groups of elements simultaneously.

“Our student worker Baylee McDade will help prepare the samples, grinding them into powder, for analysis on the EDXRF machine…after the rocks finish in the drying oven,” said Darcy Bevens, an educational specialist at the ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo .

“The analysis will give HVO details about the composition of the rock,” Bevens added.

Lundblad and colleague Peter Mills, an professor, have operated the X-Ray Fluoresence Spectrometer for the past 20 years, working on archaeological materials.

In past years, they also have worked with geology lecturer Cheryl Gansecki on newly erupted samples from Kīlauea—and now this week, Maunaloa—to track changes in the eruption. They do this by taking samples from the active flows, which are run through the EDXRF machine and analyzed for changes from one sample to the next.

In-depth tracking

����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo has been analyzing lava flow samples from Kīlauea since 2013 however the composition barely changed until May 2018. First there was magma that had been stored, older, colder, and then as the fissures progressed, the scientists started to see, younger, hotter, magma coming in. This type of lava is more fluid and can travel longer distances.

“We successfully tracked changes during the 2018 eruption from magma that was stored in the lower East Rift zone to new magma that traveled from the summit reservoir,” Lundblad said.

The chemical change detected by the ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo team preceded the change in Kīlauea’s eruptive behavior by two to three days which gave officials advanced warning in their task of protecting the public.

Now the ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo team is at work on the Maunaloa flows.

“Because Maunaloa is a new eruption, we are hoping to help the USGS-HVO folks track changes from the early phases of the eruption to later stages,” Lundblad said.

For more information go to .

Most people in Hawaiʻi are familiar with—olivine—a gorgeous light green mineral in basalt rock that makes Mahana Beach on Hawaiʻi Island one of the few “green sand” beaches in the world. Researchers are using olivine as a type of “crystal clock,” where its chemical make-up (in particular how its chemical elements are distributed from core to rim) can be analyzed and exploited to read time information. Leading the investigation is a assistant researcher, who received $554,181 from a National Science Foundation CAREER award over the next five years.

Thomas Shea plans to experimentally calibrate these crystal clocks in a lab and apply the findings to understand natural systems on Hawaiʻi Island.

“����Vlog�ٷ� has for many decades been an essential component and leader in the study of active volcanoes,” said Shea, who works in the ’s . “I hope to continue this long tradition of conducting frontier volcanological research with many of my colleagues at ����Vlog�ٷ� and in collaboration with the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, part of the United States Geological Survey. Hawaiʻi is such a special place on Earth geologically, and we consider the study of our dynamic environment and natural hazards an absolutely critical mission of ����Vlog�ٷ�.”

Getting students informed and interested in Earth science careers is of utmost importance for Hawaiʻi and one of the major endeavors of the five-year award. With respect to the research components, given the destructive outcome of the last large eruption at Kīlauea volcano in 2018, better understanding the timing of events that happen underneath the surface prior to these eruptions is also of key significance for Hawaiʻi.

An exploratory aspect of the work planned for this award is to use a set of samples that were collected from a hot lava lake over nearly 30 years (1959-88). A large eruption filled an existing crater at the summit of Kīlauea in 1959 with a lava lake, and this lake formed a hard crust and took more than 40 years to fully solidify (62 years later, that lava is no longer molten but still hot deep underneath).

During those years, scientists drilled through the hard crust to sample lava at the different depths, and repeatedly over three decades.

“Today we have a remarkable time series of samples from the 1960-80s that are sort of like a 30-year-long magma cooling experiment where we can track chemical changes in the olivine and see if they behave like faithful ‘crystal clocks’ that we will be able to leverage for more recent and future eruptions,” said Shea.

This work is an example of ����Vlog�ٷ� ��ā�ԴDz�’s goal of (PDF), one of four goals identified in the (PDF), updated in December 2020.

Promoting Earth sciences to Hawaiʻi students

The educational component of the award proposes to use hands-on experimentation and active learning to get Hawaiʻi students (particularly at the pre-college level) excited about STEM and discover some of the fascinating facets of Earth sciences. This will involve both on-site activities and programs at ����Vlog�ٷ� and going to classrooms in high schools around Oʻahu and potentially Hawaiʻi Island.

“Part of our mission as scientists and teachers—and our responsibility to the state of Hawaiʻi —is to investigate and understand natural phenomena and educate our children and local population,” added Shea. “Only a small percentage of our local students are taught about Earth sciences in secondary schools statewide. Yet the coming decades pose formidable challenges in terms of hazards related to natural phenomena, not just volcanic eruptions at our four most active volcanoes (Kīlauea, Mauna Loa, Hualālai and Haleakalā) but coastal erosion, reef survival and climate change.”

A new volcano, Geldingadalir, has erupted in Iceland, offering rare opportunities for close-up exploration and research into eruption processes and how to better predict future eruptions. 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker talked with University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (SOEST) alumni Thorvaldur Thordarson and Christopher Hamilton, and Professor Bruce Houghton, during the eruption response.

Opportunity knocks

After a drastic decline in volcanic activity from the Halemaʻumaʻu lava lake on Kīlauea Volcano by April 2021 and with no access to the Italian volcano Stromboli during the COVID-19 pandemic, Houghton connected with Thordarson, who is now a professor in volcanology and petrology at the University of Iceland to find a new target for his research.

Given their robust working partnership and the dynamic and rapidly changing character of the eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland, the two researchers developed a plan to capture high resolution videos of the Reykjanes fountains to quantify the changing patterns of eruption style and strength and link this to drone-based studies of the evolving craters, lavas and cones.

When Houghton arrived at the volcano, he witnessed a spectacular sight.

“These were easily the best, most breath-taking fountaining eruptions that I have ever seen,” said Houghton. “Conditions were perfect for documenting their activity—we could approach safely to the very edge of any part of the system of linked lavas and cones and had driving access to many key observation points.”

Now back in Hawaiʻi with the video footage in hand, Houghton and ����Vlog�ٷ� researcher Caroline Tisdale will measure key parameters like eruption rate, particle sizes and velocities that determine the style and intensity of these unusual eruptions, which sit in the middle ground between Hawaiian lava fountains and short-lived explosions such as Stromboli.

The collaboration continues to provide new insights into the mechanisms affecting when, why and how basaltic volcanoes erupt. This information feeds directly into hazard and impact studies that are particularly important, in light of the 2018 eruptions and devastation at Kīlauea.

This event is an example of ����Vlog�ٷ� ��ā�ԴDz�’s goal of (PDF), one of four goals identified in the (PDF), updated in December 2020.

.

–By Marcie Grabowski

The 2018 Kīlauea eruption in Hawaiʻi provided scientists with an unprecedented opportunity to identify new factors that could help forecast the hazard potential of future eruptions.

A team of researchers, including University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Professor Bruce Houghton, identified an indicator of magma viscosity that can be measured before an eruption, providing critical information to help understand possible future eruptions. The findings are .

“The study is very unusual because it falls at the interface between two distinct disciplines in volcanology: seismology and studies of the viscosity (fluidity) of the molten rock,” said Houghton.

Viscous magma linked with powerful explosions

The properties of the magma inside a volcano affect how an eruption will play out. In particular, the viscosity of this molten rock is a major factor in influencing how hazardous an eruption could be for nearby communities.

Very viscous magmas are linked with more powerful explosions because they can block gas from escaping through vents, allowing pressure to build up inside the volcano’s plumbing system. On the other hand, extrusion of more viscous magma results in slower-moving lava flows.

“But magma viscosity is usually only quantified well after an eruption, not in advance,” explained Diana Roman, lead author of the study and volcanologist at . “So, we are always trying to identify early indications of magma viscosity that could help forecast a volcano’s eruption style.”

Kīlauea eruption provides wealth of data

The 2018 event included the first eruptive activity in Kīlauea’s lower East Rift Zone since 1960. The first of 24 fissures opened in early May, and the eruption continued for three months. This situation provided unprecedented access to information for the team of researchers.

The event provided a wealth of simultaneous data about the behavior of both high- and low-viscosity magma, as well as about the pre-eruption stresses in the solid rock underlying Kīlauea.

Tectonic and volcanic activity cause fractures, called faults, to form in the rock that makes up Earth’s crust. When geologic stresses cause these faults to move against each other, geoscientists measure the 3-D orientation and movement of the faults using seismic instruments.

By studying what happened in Kīlauea’s lower East Rift Zone in 2018, Roman and her colleagues determined that the direction of the fault movements in the lower East Rift Zone before and during the volcanic eruption could be used to estimate the viscosity of rising magma during periods of precursory unrest.

“We were able to show that with robust monitoring we can relate pressure and stress in a volcano’s plumbing system to the underground movement of more viscous magma,” Roman explained. “This will enable monitoring experts to better anticipate the eruption behavior of volcanoes like Kīlauea and to tailor response strategies in advance.”

This research is an example of ����Vlog�ٷ� ��ā�ԴDz�’s goal of (PDF), one of four goals identified in the (PDF), updated in December 2020.

–By Marcie Grabowski

The unprecedented cost of the 2018 Kiīlauea eruption in Hawaiʻi reflects the intersection of distinct physical and social phenomena: infrequent, highly destructive eruptions and atypically high population growth, according to a new study published in and led by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers.

It has long been recognized that areas in Puna, Hawaiʻi, are at high risk from lava flows. In fact, Puna lies within the three highest-risk lava hazard zones (1, 2 and 3). This ensured that land values were lower, which actively promoted rapid population growth.

• Read more about ����’s research on the 2018 Kiīlauea eruption.

“Low prices on beautiful land and a scarcity of recent eruptions led to unavoidable consequences—more people and more development,” said Bruce Houghton, the lead author of the study and Gordan Macdonald Professor of Volcanology in the ����Vlog�ٷ� Mānoa (SOEST). “Ultimately this drastically increased the value of what was at risk in 2018, relative to earlier eruptions of Kīlauea.”

Kīlauea is one of the most active volcanoes on Earth and has one of the earliest, most comprehensive volcanic monitoring systems. Its recent history has been dominated by activity at the summit caldera and from one of two lines of vents called the Eastern Rift Zone. Between 1967 and 2018, volcanic activity was dominated by eruptions from the upper part of the Eastern Rift Zone. In contrast, no damaging eruptions occurred after 1961 in the more heavily populated Puna district from the vents within the lower portion of the Eastern Rift Zone.

Assessing trends

The ����Vlog�ٷ� team assessed trends in population growth in Pāhoa-Kalapana, Hilo and Puna using census data, and compared the median cost of land and household income in these areas.

Valuable lessons regarding the complex interplay of science, policy and public behavior emerged from the 2018 disaster.

“Steep population growth occurred during the absence of any locally sourced eruptions between 1961 and 2018, and set the scene for the unprecedented levels of infrastructural damage during the 2018 Lower Eastern Rift Zone eruption,” said Wendy Cockshell, co-author on the paper and technical assistant at the (NDPTC) at ����Vlog�ٷ� Mānoa.

If population growth resumes in lava hazard zones 1 and 2, there will be increased risk in the most dangerous areas on this exceptionally active volcano translating into high cost of damage in future eruptions.

“Our funded research supports the principle of the initiatives by local and federal government to provide buy-out funding to landowners affected by the 2018 eruption to enable them to relocate outside of these hazardous areas,” said Houghton.

The study was funded with support from the National Science Foundation and the NDPTC.

This effort is an example of ����Vlog�ٷ� ��ā�ԴDz�’s goal of Excellence in (PDF), one of four goals identified in the (PDF), updated in December 2020.

–By Marcie Grabowski

The latest eruption that began late December 20, 2020, at Halemaʻumaʻu crater at the summit of Kīlauea on Hawaiʻi Island has fired up scientists, including three alumni. Armed with little sleep and a great education, the graduates are making important contributions.

Miki Warren (2018), Liliana DeSmither (2014) and Katie Mulliken (2012), work for the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS–HVO) and are currently helping with data collection and public communication.

DeSmither explained what she and Mulliken worked on during the first 18 hours of the eruption.

“Got a total of 2.5 hours of sleep last night,” DeSmither said. “Katie and I have been handling the [Volcano Activity Notice and Volcano Observatory Notice for Aviation] releases, helping to write, edit and review the information statement for the [magnitude 4.4] earthquake last night. We’ve also been getting updates, photos and videos from the field crews to write captions and post multimedia to the HVO webpage and responding to [emails sent to askHVO@usgs.gov]. Attended several meetings and calls about the eruption response and public facing information.”

DeSmither also created an animated image for the public showing the first several hours of the eruption using F1cam thermal camera images.

She and Mulliken are also geologists who work in the field.

Gas geochemistry

Warren’s specialty is gas geochemistry. She assists HVO scientists in collecting data on the types and amounts of volcanic gases that are emitted by the volcano, both during eruptions and times of inactivity. This work is critical for understanding how volcanoes work, and also for protecting the health of the general public.

Warren recalled her first night of the eruption, “I got a call from Tamar Elias, USGS–HVO gas geochemist, at 10:30 p.m. [the first night of the eruption]. I was on standby until I got the official word about half an hour later to head to the USGS–HVO warehouse in Kea‘au to pick up the gas team’s [Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectrometer] to bring to the summit of Kīlauea, where Halemaʻumaʻu was erupting. I went out with the gas team that night and collected geochemical spectral data using the light emitted from the new lava fountain in Halemaʻumaʻu. The next morning I came home and slept for two hours, then grabbed new sulfur dioxide sensors to see how much SO2 the lava was producing, and headed back to meet the HVO gas geochemists Tamar Elias and Tricia Nadeau for another full day of volcanic gas measurements.”

Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes

All three alumnae gained experience working around volcanic features, and monitoring eruptions of Kīlauea, while attending ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo. Darcy Bevens, educational specialist at the ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo (CSAV), said, “They acquired knowledge and skills, both from taking geology classes, and from working as student assistants with the Center for the .”

Bevens said the three geologists were hired at HVO through a ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo , established by the late Senator Daniel K. Inouye in 1998 to promote research collaboration between HVO and ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo, as well as an active natural hazards public outreach program to Hawaiʻi Island’s schools. The grant is managed by CSAV.

“Other cooperative projects include providing funding for equipment shared between HVO and ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo,” said Bevens. “The ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo geology department provides lab space and shares equipment with HVO, and students currently enrolled as geology majors enjoy working with HVO scientists on research projects.”

—By Susan Enright, a public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo Stories.

The largest and hottest shield volcano on Earth was revealed by researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (SOEST). In , a team of volcanologists and ocean explorers used several lines of evidence to determine Pūhāhonu, a volcano within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, holds this distinction.

Geoscientists and the public have long thought Mauna Loa, a culturally-significant and active shield volcano on Hawaiʻi Island, was the largest volcano in the world. However, after surveying the ocean floor along the mostly submarine Hawaiian leeward volcano chain, chemically analyzing rocks in the ����Vlog�ٷ� Mānoa rock collection and modeling the results of these studies, the research team came to a new conclusion. Pūhāhonu, meaning “turtle rising for breath” in Hawaiian, is nearly twice as big as Mauna Loa.

“It has been proposed that hotspots that produce volcano chains like Hawaiʻi undergo progressive cooling over 1-2 million years and then die,” said Michael Garcia, lead author of the study and retired professor of at SOEST. “However, we have learned from this study that hotspots can undergo pulses of melt production. A small pulse created the Midway cluster of now extinct volcanoes and another, much bigger one created Pūhāhonu. This will rewrite the textbooks on how mantle plumes work.”

In 1974, Pūhāhonu (then called Gardner Pinnacles) was suspected to be the largest Hawaiian volcano based on very limited survey data. Subsequent studies of the Hawaiian Islands concluded that Mauna Loa was the largest volcano, but they included the root of the volcano that is below the seafloor that was not considered in the 1974 study. The new comprehensive surveying and modeling, using methods similar to those used for Mauna Loa, show that Pūhāhonu is the largest.

This study highlights Hawaiian volcanoes that have been erupting some of the hottest magma on Earth for millions of years.

For more information see the .

—By Marcie Grabowski

A new approach to analyzing earthquake data revealed an unprecedented level of detail in the deep plumbing system underlying Alaska’s Cleveland volcano, one of the most active of more than 70 Aleutian volcanoes, according to in Scientific Reports by Helen Janiszewski, assistant professor of earth sciences at the . Janiszewski was at the Carnegie Institution for Science at the time of the research, with Lara Wagner and Diana Roman.

In this study, Janiszewski demonstrated a technique that uses seismic waves coming from distant earthquakes, but isolates the part of them that is affected by moving through the boundary between the Earth’s mantle and crust. This allowed the research team to build models that better distinguish the partially molten regions from the surrounding solid rock in these difficult-to-reach depths beneath Cleveland volcano, without requiring an extensive number of seismic stations at the surface.

“We revealed the volcano’s deep subterranean structure in never-before-seen detail, using fewer instruments by an order of magnitude than is typical for detailed seismic imaging at volcanoes,” Janiszewski said.

Arc volcanoes like Cleveland form over plate boundaries where one tectonic plate slides beneath another. They are linked to the Earth’s mantle by complex subsurface structures that cross the full thickness of the planet’s crust. These structures are more complex than large chambers of molten rock. Rather, they comprise an interlaced array of solid rock and a “mushy” mix of partially molten rock and solid crystals.

Resolving this subterranean architecture is crucial for emergency planning and saving human lives. But these regions have been difficult to capture.

Since it’s impossible for humans to directly observe the depths of Earth’s interior, scientists need instruments to help them visualize what’s happening. Traditionally, a variety of geophysical and geochemical approaches are deployed to determine the structures that exist beneath a volcano.

Although Cleveland has frequent gas emissions, explosions and ash deposits at its surface, there is very little evidence of seismic activity deep beneath the volcano. This makes imaging the architecture of the lower and middle crust below Cleveland very challenging.

“The technique will allow imaging of structures underneath volcanoes where there are only a few stations, or where a lack of deep earthquakes in the vicinity makes other methods difficult,” Janiszewski added.

For more on the story, see .

—By Marcie Grabowski

, the Gordon A. Macdonald Professor of Volcanology in the (SOEST) at the , was elected a (AGU). Houghton, who joined SOEST in 2000, has made impressive contributions internationally in the field of volcanology and volcanic hazards.

AGU is an international non-profit scientific association with 60,000 members in 137 countries. Annually since 1962, it elects fellows whose visionary leadership and scientific excellence have fundamentally advanced research in their respective fields. It is a distinguished honor bestowed on no more than 0.1 percent of the AGU membership.

“This is further acclaim for the excellence of Bruce’s work in understanding the dynamics of volcanic eruptions and the human responses to same, which is so important to people living with active volcanoes as we do in Hawaiʻi,” said .

Houghton’s research focuses on the mechanisms of explosive eruptions from real-time, high-speed imagery and study of eruption products. He was a member of the U.S. Geological Survey field response team throughout the 2018 volcanic crisis at Kīlauea.

At ����Vlog�ٷ� Mānoa, he also serves as science director of the FEMA-funded .

AGU’s 2018 class of fellows will be recognized on December 12 during the organization’s fall meeting in Washington, D.C.

For the full story, see the .

—By Marcie Grabowski

A rapid response team of scientists from the ‘s (C-MORE) in the (SOEST) returned from a four-day expedition to investigate the effects of the Kīlauea volcanic eruption on marine life near Kapoho on Hawaiʻi Island and the surrounding areas.

Understanding the impact of the eruption on ocean microbes is critical to understanding its potential effect on the broader marine ecosystem.

Satellite images revealed elevated chlorophyll levels in the ocean near the eruption zone, indicating a bloom of algae—tiny photosynthetic microbes that absorb carbon dioxide, produce oxygen and serve as the foundation of the marine food web.

“We confirmed the algae bloom, although as usual mother nature also served up some surprises and challenges,” said , SOEST professor and C-MORE director. “We found that the chemistry of the lava interacts with the ocean to provide a nourishment, a fertilizer if you will, and that promoted the growth of plants.”

The researchers theorize that the lava and ash, which are enriched in iron and phosphorus, are acting as a fertilizer fueling the algae growth. Onboard the , researchers sampled the water and will study its contents to discover how the volcanic eruption and ocean entry are influencing ocean chemistry, phytoplankton activities and ecosystem processes.

“The water samples are currently being analyzed at laboratories around the world,” said Karl, who said the team of researchers also conducted experiments to measure the productivity of the algae and more. “The cruise was a huge success.”

The team also successfully deployed a WaveGlider and a SeaGlider, two types of drones that will be surveying the region for the next few months.

• Read more ����Vlog�ٷ� News stories on the university’s work on the Kīlauea eruption.

Coordination and new funding

Often, research cruises are planned years in advance. In this case, rapid deployment was necessary because phytoplankton blooms, like the one captured in the satellite images, are short-lived.

Karl and team quickly coordinated with , a Western Washington University researcher and SOEST alumna, who had a cruise planned to deploy a series of ocean bottom seismometers near the shoreline.

The ����Vlog�ٷ� ����ԴDz� team also received funds for ship time from the National Science Foundation and the Simons Foundation, which also supports the Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology, a cross-disciplinary effort to measure and model the critical activities of marine microbes based at ����Vlog�ٷ� ����ԴDz�.

The team will continue to gain insight into the effect of this rare interaction. In late July, the U.S. National Science Foundation awarded Karl and SOEST Oceanography Professor more than $180,000 to advance this work. With the new grant, the team will return to the field to recover the drones, and gather additional observations and water samples at the lava-seawater contact zone and in the ash deposition region downwind of Halemaʻuʻmau in west Hawaiʻi Island.

They will also use ash samples in future laboratory and field-based experiments to determine the acute effects on the growth and metabolism of marine microbes.

Researchers at are also hard at work collecting data at the eruption site, .

—By Marcie Grabowski

The has awarded volcanologists at the University of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz� (SOEST) and Rebecca Carey at the University of Tasmania a $471,897 grant to partner with scientists at the (USGS) . The timely goal: to improve fundamental understanding of the behaviors of Hawaiian and Strombolian volcanoes and help assess hazards of future explosive events at basaltic centers.

Basaltic explosive eruptions are highly dynamic and prone to transitions in style and intensity that cannot yet be predicted. This diversity is exemplified by two island volcanoes that are very active: Kīlauea on Hawaiʻi Island and Stromboli in Italy.

Activity at these volcanoes can be passive degassing through isolated and impulsive bubble bursts, powerful single explosions, unsteady spattering or sustained fountains.

“Their eruptions pose constant challenges for management agencies, exemplified by the situation at Kīlauea, because the eruption sites are highly accessible and there is a need to balance the strong popular interest in viewing the eruptive activity against public safety,” said Houghton, the Gordon Macdonald Professor of Volcanology in SOEST‘s . “This balance requires sophisticated knowledge of the volcanoes’ current and immediately future behavior.”

The three-year grant is expected to identify patterns and precursors indicative of possible changes in volcanic activity, supporting management of risk at the world’s most popular “tourist volcanoes.”

“Our Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (and Italian) partners in this study have federally mandated roles to advise response agencies and will transfer knowledge to the bodies charged with risk management,” said Houghton.

This project will involve exchange of material and ideas between institutions in the U.S., United Kingdom and Italy to the benefit of young researchers and students. The results will be widely disseminated via meetings and workshops, courses offered by the FEMA-funded at ����Vlog�ٷ�, online and in scientific publications.

For the .

—By Marcie Grabowski

As the lava from the volcanic eruption on Hawaiʻi Island continues to flow, a team from the is providing critical information to the scientists responding to the natural disaster—real-time chemistry analysis of lava samples that help determine how the lava will behave and how fast it will move.

“The first time anybody is trying to do this, to really look at the chemistry at the same time the volcano is erupting,” said ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo Volcanologist Cheryl Gansecki.

The samples are collected daily from the flows, bagged and dated, and brought back to the Hilo campus. That’s when the ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo team goes to work.

“We can do a really quick chemical analysis, we can look for tracers that tell us if anything is changing in the magma, in the system, and get that information back to HVO right away, usually within hours, or at least a day,” said Gansecki.

It’s a process that used to take weeks or months. The new system is also providing once in a lifetime opportunities for ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo undergraduate students who test the lava samples.

“My job is to take those, turn them into powder, and run them through the machine and that gives us chemical data,” said ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo geology student Ryan Sasaki.

����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo has been analyzing lava flow samples from Kīlauea since 2013 but the composition barely changed. Then came May 2018 and a dramatic change.

“Itʻs magma that has been stored, it’s older, it’s colder and then as the fissures progressed, we started to see, younger, hotter, magma coming in,” ,” said Gansecki.

This type of lava is more fluid and can travel longer distances. The chemical change detected by the ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo team preceded the change in the eruptive behavior by two to three days. That gave officials advanced warning.

“It’s awesome to know that I am contributing to cutting-edge, real science that’s happening now,” said Sasaki.

• Read more ����Vlog�ٷ� News stories on the university’s work on the Kīlauea eruption.

Volcanologists at the (SOEST) will receive a $119,821 grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation to study the ongoing volcanic activity on Hawaiʻi Island. The project, Rapid: Tracking magmatic and volcanic changes in the May 2018 Kīlauea Eruption, seeks to inform why the current volcanic activity is occurring and will help to predict future eruption activity.

“Scientific data has been critical to tracking the volcanic activity on Hawaiʻi Island to minimize the threat to Puna families,” Hirono said. “This federal funding is timely and will increase the resources available to study Kīlauea’s east rift zone and gain insight into future eruptions.”

The project was funded through the National Science Foundation’s Rapid Research Response program, which is available for research on natural disasters and other unanticipated events.

• Read more ����Vlog�ٷ� News stories on the university’s work on the Kīlauea eruption.

Rubin, along with three other SOEST volcanologists, , and , will lead the assessment of the location and movement of magma beneath the lower east rift zone of Kīlauea to provide information on the processes leading up to the fissures and eruption activity. This study will incorporate aerial imagery and samples of lava collected throughout the event by ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo and the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory to inform knowledge on volcanic processes and activities in volcanic rift zones.

Additionally, the project also includes application of very short half-life natural radioactivity to look at volcanic conditions such as magma ascent rate and degassing. These need to be measured in lavas shortly after being erupted or the signal decays away.

“This eruption represents an amazing opportunity to look, really for the first time, at variations of the isotopes with eruption condition in space and time, and would simply not be possible without the sample collections in real time by USGS,” said Rubin. “Very few labs in the world can do this sort of analysis and we are lucky to be able to take advantage of this opportunity.”

graduate Katherine Mulliken was captured in one of the most dramatic photos taken of the eruption on Hawaiʻi Island. Mulliken was born and raised on Hawaiʻi Island and grew up in Volcano Village right outside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. She works as a geologist for the , a cooperating partner of the Alaska Volcano Observatory, but was sent back home to help with the response to the 2018 Kīlauea eruption.

“Mostly what I have been doing is helping to monitor in the lower east rift zones, noting activity areas,” she said. “Whether flows have advanced or stalled. Whether there is new fissuring in certain areas or fountaining in certain areas.”

• Read more ����Vlog�ٷ� News stories on the university’s work on the Kīlauea eruption.

Important information in evaluating the hazards created by the eruption. Mulliken’s duties also include collecting samples from active lava flows. The 2012 ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo graduate in geology and anthropology went to graduate school in Alaska, where she lives and works. She says this homecoming is bittersweet.

“Iʻm really happy and grateful that I get to be here helping out. Itʻs been a little hard. You know, itʻs hard to see people really impacted, friends and family,” she said.

Mulliken is one of three ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo graduates working with the U.S. Geological Survey team responding to the eruption. On top of being well trained, the Hilo graduates have local knowledge that has been invaluable to officials. Mulliken says it’s been nice to see so many familiar faces.

“Professors I took classes from are now helping out with the response and providing long-term perspective on activities that they have observed.”

She’s not surprised that ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo offered to house the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory after it was forced to evacuate its building at the summit of Kīlauea because of the explosive events occurring there.

“(It’s) really reflective, I think, of Hawaiʻii in general. Everyone wants to help out.”

It’s a big reason why she hopes to return home for good and use what she learned at ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo, to serve her community.

The is playing a vital role in the response to the volcanic eruption on Hawaiʻi Island that has destroyed dozens of homes and forced the evacuation of more than a thousand residents. ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo professors, scientists and students are providing valuable expertise and resources on multiple fronts, helping government officials assess the hazards to the public and its personnel, and decide where and how to respond.

“We are really happy that we are able to serve our community, and being able to contribute to the emergency response is also a great opportunity for our students,” said Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Ken Hon. “We’ve been working for a long time to provide meaningful contributions to provide greater understanding of volcanoes on our island and it’s great to be putting that knowledge to use.”

Helping in multiple areas

����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo faculty and students have been assisting in multiple areas including:

• A team led by ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo Geology Department Chair and Professor Steven Lundblad is assisting in the response to the threat to the Puna Geothermal Venture Power Plant. The group is providing precise leveling of the ground around the power plant to detect whether, and how much, the surface is rising due to the flow of magma beneath the surface. The monitoring can, among other things, alert officials if the facility is about to be compromised.
• A group of undergraduate and graduate students led by ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo Geography Associate Professor Ryan Perroy are piloting unmanned aerial vehicles day and night capturing thermo and regularly imagery of the lava flows, critical information to the government agencies overseeing the eruption response.
• ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo Volcanologist Cheryl Gansecki, assisted by undergraduate students, is providing real-time chemistry analysis of lava samples. The information helps government scientists determine how the lava will behave and how fast it will move.

Providing Hawaiian Volcano Observatory a home

The Hilo campus also opened its doors to the U.S. Geological Survey after the eruption closed the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is the source of information for county and state emergency officials when it comes to volcanic and earthquake hazards.

“����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo has been a phenomenal resource for us,” said Ed Brown, the Volcano Science Center USGS associate director. “They’ve provided space, they have provided infrastructure so we can put our communications systems in and extra staff.”

����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo is also providing another vital resource to USGS—highly qualified employees. Three recent graduates of ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo are among the approximately two dozen USGS personnel working around the clock to gather and analyze up-to-the-minute information on the eruption and lava flows.

“Seeing ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo open up their doors to the USGS who can’t occupy their buildings right now is just really reflective, I think, of Hawaiʻi in general,” said Katherine Mulliken a geologist from the Alaska Volcano Observatory, who was born and raised on Hawaiʻi Island and is a 2012 ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo graduate. “Everyone wants to help out and really come together.”

����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo has a longstanding relationship with the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, which for years has been providing students with internships and other opportunities to engage in the monitoring of an active volcano. Hon says that much of the geology program at ����Vlog�ٷ� Hilo has been developed to complement and support the observatory.

NASA has awarded five-year grants, each approximately $8 million, to three research teams that will study the origins, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe. , planetary volcanology researcher at the University of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz� (SOEST), is on the .

According to Fagents, “The single compelling question for this research is: What habitable environments exist on Titan and what resulting potential biosignatures should we look for?”

To address that question, the team that is led by NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Rosaly Lopes will use data gathered by the , together with laboratory experiments and theoretical modeling, to investigate the interactions between the atmosphere, surface and interior that may lead to the development and detection of biosignatures—indicators of past or present life.

After the Cassini’s successful 13-year tour of the Saturn system, there is a wealth of data on Titan’s atmosphere, icy surface, subsurface ocean and rocky interior that is ripe for analysis in this project.

How and where might life be detected on Titan?

Fagents will lead the team that aims to determine how biosignatures can be transported from the ocean to the surface and atmosphere and be recognized there. This will include investigation into the pathways for transport from ocean to surface and atmosphere, how molecules may be altered as they move from the subsurface ocean to the surface, and whether transport to the surface could result in habitable environments along the pathway.

However, her main focus will be studying the physical mechanisms by which fluids or ice can rise through the ice shell of Titan and emerge at the surface, a process termed “cryovolcanism.” This process would also carry any biosignatures that formed in the ocean or ice, thus giving scientists a chance to detect them.

—By Marcie Grabowski

On April 30, 2018, along the East Rift Zone of Kīlauea Volcano on Hawaiʻi Island, Puʻu ʻŌʻō crater began to collapse, followed by increased seismicity and ground motion down-rift. Small ground cracks opened near Leilani Estates on May 1–2. As of May 18, there have been 21 fissure eruptions, with some still spattering lava.

The Kīlauea eruption has generated extensive news coverage and University of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz�’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) volcanologists and fog experts have been sought by local, national and international media to provide background and information.

• Read more ����Vlog�ٷ� News stories on the university’s work on the Kīlauea eruption.

Elevated earthquake activity continues and volcanic gas emissions remain elevated throughout the area downwind of the fissures. Magma continues to be supplied to the lower East Rift Zone as indicated by the continued northwest displacement of a GPS monitoring station.

For more on the story and a list of selected media appearances, go to the .

—By Marcie Grabowski