Dozens of earthquakes detected as Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, world’s largest active volcano, remains in ‘state of heightened unrest’
The quakes and eruptions could start again as soon as two weeks
The volcano’s last major quakes were in 2015.
A major earthquake was detected at the bottom of the earth on Saturday, which followed a series of more than 20 small tremors and small, moderate-strength eruptions that started on Thursday and peaked on Friday, according to the USGS.
The quakes have been building for the past several weeks, culminating in a magnitude 4 Mw quake — the largest in recorded history — that was about 1,000 feet below the ocean, at the edge of the volcano’s caldera.
On Sunday, the USGS issued a revised magnitude 4.6 Mw quake in the same area, and said it could indicate a new phase of activity is beginning.
The USGS said its earthquake monitoring system determined that several of the earthquakes were the result of magma plumbing as magma is being forced up a fault in the volcano’s caldera floor.
A magnitude 4.6 Mw earthquake was recorded at the bottom of the earth on Sunday but did not result in any impact on ground or ocean levels, the USGS reported. (USGS)
The USGS said it will continue to monitor the volcano for further earthquakes as it does not want to interfere with an ongoing eruption.
Scientists expect more earthquakes to continue at Mauna Loa until at least mid-October.
“This could be a long run as it could be ongoing for months or longer, so we want to make sure we’re keeping track of this, and we’re keeping an eye out for this, that there are no other similar events like this in the future,” said Dr. Eddy Nahm, an associate professor of geophysics at Caltech.
“It’s going to take a while to understand what these quakes are, but it’s possible we could get more in the next few days or weeks,” he said.
USGS forecasters last week said the volcano is in “a state of heightened unrest”.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) says Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano remains in a state of heightened unrest. (USGS)
The USGS issued a series of public advisories warning residents
