Mainland Helps Monitor Hawaii Quakes, Eruptions After Storm Damage

U.S. Geographical Service outposts in other states are helping monitor Hawaii’s volcanoes and earthquakes while work is done to repair Tropical Storm Iselle’s damage to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

Violent winds slammed the observatory early Friday, causing power problems and other damage to the computer system.

Officials say complete restoration of the station perched on the rim of Kilauea Caldera at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is expected this week.

In the meantime, the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado, is tracking Hawaii’s larger earthquakes, while USGS volcanologists in Alaska and Virginia are keeping watch via satellite imagery.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports the problems have caused disruptions to eruption updates, webcam imagery, earthquake data and other information normally available on the observatory’s websites.