Monday marked the one-year anniversary of the 2022 Maunaloa eruption. The dormant volcano on the Big Island came to life in the middle of the night on Nov. 27, 2022, for the first time in 38 years.
"It was a spectacular eruption. We had closed the summit of Maunaloa several weeks before the eruption... so luckily that area was closed because if anybody had been in the summit cabin or at Red Hill or something, we would have had to go up there and evacuate or hope for the best," said Jessica Ferracane, the spokesperson for Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimated nearly 9 billion cubic feet of lava erupted during the 14-day event to form a flow that extended over 12 miles down the mountain's slope.
While the eruption covered nearly 5 miles of trails on the slopes, public access to the Maunaloa and Red Hill cabins has been restored.
No structures or lives were lost. But the lava came within a mile of the Daniel K. Inouye Highway and, for a time, threatened to impact commercial traffic and commuters.
"Then it stopped before it even hit the road or any real significant infrastructure. Definitely, the county and the state and Pōhakuloa Training Area did an exemplary job of setting up viewing areas for the public, which was wonderful because, like many of the people I work with and my neighbors, I was out there quite a bit to check out the Maunaloa flows and that amazing sight," Ferracane said.
Neighboring Kīlauea was erupting simultaneously last year, an event that had not happened since 1984. The national park, which covers both volcanoes, recently closed some areas around Kīlauea.
Ferracane said Kīlauea is in an agitated state of unrest, and magma is definitely on the move.
"There has been a lot of seismic activity near the caldera, Halemaʻumaʻu and Kaluapele, but also in that South-Southwest Rift Zone Area. And then we've had some activity in the Upper East Rift. So the areas that sort of flank Halemaʻumaʻu Crater, we've definitely been keeping an eye on them," she added.
"That volcano will definitely erupt again, and maybe without any warning, but these earthquakes are kind of telling us she's going to do something pretty soon. It could be weeks, it could be months, but there's probably an eruption in the works," Ferracane said.
A fissure eruption would be a departure from the last five eruptions in the summit crater at Halemaʻumaʻu, she added.
The closures, especially in the Kāʻu Desert, are necessary to keep visitors safe, she said. Chain of Craters Road has reopened.
This story aired on The Conversation on Nov. 27, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. Sophia McCullough adapted this story for the web.
