How often does the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupt?
Judy Mattson
Hi Judy,
You have asked a difficult question. It depends on how you look at the
information. If you just look at the number of Kilauea eruptions recorded since
white folks arrived, there have been 62 eruptions in 245 years, which comes out
to 1 eruption every 3.95 years. However, this completely ignores the fact that
some of the eruptions lasted a long time. For example, the current eruption
started in January of 1983 and has been continuous ever since! Likewise, there
was an active lava lake in the summit caldera from at least 1823 until 1924,
while at the same time eruptions would take place elsewhere on the
flanks.
In a few months we hope to have a section here on VolcanoWorld that will let
you gather information on all of Kilauea's eruptions. I hope you will check
back again then.
Sincerely,
Scott Rowland, University of Hawaii
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