Volcano Awareness Month 2022 Seismology Update — 2021: A year of earthquakes on Island of Hawai‘i

The last year has been a busy one for seismologists at the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Earthquake activity at Kīlauea summit has varied over the past year, with upticks in a variety of seismic signals providing clues to the start of the December 2020 and September 2021 Kīlauea summit eruptions. Currently observed seismic signals at Kilauea are related to ongoing eruptive activity at the summit. In the Pāhala region, swarms of deep (30–40 km or 19–25 mi) earthquakes continue to occur with high frequency and, at times, higher magnitudes. Springtime yielded an increase in the frequency of earthquakes immediately west of Mauna Loa’s summit and along the volcano’s Southwest Rift Zone. However, since that time, earthquake activity at Mauna Loa has decreased. Join USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geophysicist Ninfa Bennington as she summarizes the earthquake activity on the Island of Hawai‘i over the past year in this Volcano Awareness Month talk presented on January 11, 2021. Volcano A