Qualla: 2018 Hawaii Earthquake

2018 Hawaii Earthquake: Introduction

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

An hour before the main shock, a magnitude 5.4 foreshock rolled across the Big Island and was felt as far away as Oahu, more than 200 miles to the northwest. It was a warning shot. At 12:33 p.m. on May 4, 2018, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake -- the largest to hit Hawaii since 1975 -- struck near the south flank of Kilauea. The quake was not a separate event from the volcanic chaos already unfolding across lower Puna; it was part of the same system, a consequence of magma forcing its way through Kilauea's East Rift Zone and, in turn, a trigger for what came next.

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2018 Hawaii Earthquake: A Volcano Shakes Itself Apart

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Kilauea had been restless since late April 2018, with new lava outbreaks signaling a major shift in the volcano's plumbing. The earthquake's epicenter lay on Kilauea's southeastern flank, where the island's mass has been gradually collapsing seaward for millennia. Analysis of sei...

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2018 Hawaii Earthquake: Two Feet Toward the Sea

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The earthquake's most significant physical consequence was invisible from shore. The Hilina Slump, the massive block of Kilauea's south flank that has been creeping seaward at about 10 centimeters per year, lurched roughly two feet toward the ocean in a single moment. This was no...

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2018 Hawaii Earthquake: Earthquake and Eruption, Linked

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The 2018 earthquake did not occur in isolation. It was tied to the movement of magma through Kilauea's East Rift Zone, which had begun producing new lava outbreaks in lower Puna just days earlier. The relationship between seismic and volcanic activity at Kilauea is well documente...

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2018 Hawaii Earthquake: The Unstable Flank

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Hawaii Island sits far from any tectonic plate boundary, but its earthquakes are no less powerful for that. The island's active volcanoes generate constant minor seismicity as magma moves beneath them, punctuated by larger tectonic events caused by the gradual collapse of volcani...

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