A Kilauea Volcano Report

Stockton University

Nadia Wisniewska

GEOL-2101-001 Physical Geology

Professor M. Severs

April 28, 2023

Abstract: Kīlauea is a volcano in Hawaii that affects thousands of people per day. It is one of the
most studied volcanoes in the world, due to its unpredictable and volatile nature. It is very much
still active today with recent eruptions happening this year. Due to the location and nature of the
volcano, many natural phenomena occur, ranging from Earth’s mantle conditions being
controlled by Kīlauea, the summit inflation event that inevitably opened up 22 fissures, and
isotopic conditions promoting hydrothermal input subsequently causing a massive phytoplankton
bloom. More studies should be done in order to fully understand Kīlauea’s impact on the
surrounding environments.
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Introduction:
Kīlauea is the most southeastern volcano in Hawaii and it is slightly overlapping another

volcano, Mauna Loa. Kīlauea is a basaltic caldera shield volcano that formed roughly one

thousand five hundred years ago when its summit collapsed. This volcano has covered the island

in one hundred square kilometers of lava, substantially adding new coastline and destroying

countless homes and infrastructure (volcano.si.edu, 2023).

It is considered active as it has been erupting since 1983. On April 7th of 2018 another

eruption started and in September 2021 was when the newest eruption period began which

caused many new geologic features to form (Hawco et al., 2020). This volcano affects thousands

of people in the volcano village at the base of Kīlauea (Fig 1). It has many natural phenomena

occurring daily due to its location and magma composition.

History:

Kīlauea formed from very basic pyroclastic material and became a caldera when the

material was removed from the magma chamber inside the volcano causing a 600 meter (1970 ft)

collapse (USGS.gov, 2022). There is a lack of new rock on Kīlauea due to its recent eruptions,

making the complete geologic history unknown (Fig 2). It is known that Kīlauea has effusive and

explosive cycles, with three dominant effusive eruption periods and two explosive periods each

lasting hundreds of years (USGS.gov, 2022). Kīlauea is considered active as it has been erupting

steadily from 1983. On April 7th of 2018 another eruptive sequence began causing pressure to

rise and caused a crater on Pu'u 'O'o to collapse. Pu'u 'O'o is a vent off the East Rift Zone of

Kīlauea (Hawco et al., 2020). This ultimately caused the eruption of May 2018, when lava

moved into the Lower East Rift Zone inevitably opening 24 fissures over a 6 kilometer stretch

(volcano.si.edu, 2023). September 2021 was when the newest eruption period began which
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brought forth new fissures, an active lava lake and lava fountaining. This has been lasting

intermittently since June 2022 and is foreseen to continue until the near future.

Geologic Setting:

Kīlauea is a mid-plate volcano, meaning it is in the near middle of the Pacific Tectonic

Plate; most volcanoes form on the near edges of the plates. Kīlauea is slightly overlapping the

eastern slope of Mauna Loa, the largest volcano on earth. It is on top of the Hawiian hotspot,

surrounded by other chain volcanoes, this being the ideal setting for volcanoes to form. The

volcano is considered to be in the shield-building stage of Hawaiian volcanism, meaning it is

expanding in size steadily (Lundgren et al., 2013). Kīlauea is known for its open lava lakes,

fissures and craters that affect millions of people per day. It exists in Hawaii and is one the most

studied basaltic shield calderas. Due to its low slope and its effusive eruption style hundreds of

kilometers of coastline were added due to its low volatility lava (volcano.si.edu, 2023).

Properties of Kīlauea:

Kīlauea has an elevation of 1,250 meters or 4,091 feet and spans four square miles. The

volcano’s eruption style is based on the amount of magma being provided to the magma

chambers. When magma is abundant, the reaction is explosive and when there is little to no

magma the reaction is effusive. Kīlauea has effusive and explosive eruption cycles that last

hundreds of years, the volcano is currently in its effusive eruption phase. The latest eruption was

on January 5, 2023, making the volcano still extremely active; it is also one of the world’s most

active volcanoes (USGS.gov, 2022).

There are long term active lava lakes as deep as 49 meters (160 ft) which are now

hardened. More than two dozen craters have formed on Kīlauea, the most important being the

summit collapse of the mountain making it a true volcano. Plant life flourishes as the rock turns
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to soil, along with burning other plant life and fauna, allowing nutrients to enter the soil making

it a viable option for plants to grow in. Kīlauea has very deep and drained soil, this is called Hilo

soil (USGS.gov, 2022).

Important of Kīlauea:

Kīlauea has many important aspects, from the environmental, economic, and even

Hawaiian legends of gods. Kīlauea has a huge impact on the surrounding environment, eruptions

emit chemicals such as, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen chloride, mercury and

other harmful gasses (Moussallam et al., 2016). These gasses are hydrogen halides meaning they

are extremely toxic, contaminating the oxygen making it harmful for plant and animal life

including humans. Lava also travels to the ocean making the water acidic and heating up to 120

degrees fahrenheit (Moussallam et al., 2016). Plumes from the volcano send natural fertilizer

offshore depositing iron and phosphorus, creating large algal blooms which are toxic. On top of

this countless homes and places of business are destroyed creating a harsh economic cycle as the

volcano is erupting continuously.

Additionally Hawaiian legends of the goddess Pele are still prominent to this day. It was

believed that she was an elemental source of great power, the creator and the destroyer of new

land. It is believed that she embodies the lava and land of Kīlauea to this day (nps.gov, 2022).

Locals say the volatile and unpredictable behavior of the volcano is due to Pele and her temper.

Scientific Data:

Degassing and Redox buffer

The first phenomena is that scientists have discovered that the oxidation of Earth’s mantle

is directly related to volcanic emissions (Moussallam et al., 2016). Scientists were perplexed on

why this was happening so they decided to run studies to see if ascending magma oxidation rate
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allows a redox buffer. A redox buffer is an assortment of minerals or compounds that use oxygen

to regulate their temperature. Therefore they are trying to find if the redox buffer is keeping the

oxidation conditions in the mantle or if a byproduct of degassing is keeping the conditions in the

mantle (Moussallam et al., 2016). The authors state “Thus, further progress is required before

erupted basalts can be used to infer the redox state of the upper mantle or the composition of

their co-emitted gasses to the atmosphere” (Moussallam et al., 2016). The scientists tested this

theory by using a set of sample glasses from 25 Kīlauea eruptions and an olivine melt inclusion

(Fig 3).

The 25 sample glasses were tested using a Fe K-edge XANES, or X-ray absorption

near-edge structure spectroscopy. The x-rays are hyper focused in one beam, “The beamline

utilizes a liquid nitrogen-cooled double-crystal monochromator with silicon crystals and Si(333)

reflection was used to increase the energy resolution” (Moussallam et al., 2016). The results were

that the glasses and melt inclusion were more oxidized with higher concentrations of volatiles.

Therefore reduction of the melt is directly correlated with degassing volatile elements of Kīlauea

(Moussallam et al., 2016).

Summit Inflation Event

The second phenomenon is that over the years many land surveys have been conducted

on Kīlauea, during one of these surveys it was noticed that consistent mass and volume changes

have been observed under the volcano (Bemelmans et al., 2021).These mass and volume changes

were observed from April and May 2015, but have persisted overtime suggesting that there may

be a complex magma system underneath, with two magma reservoirs (Bemelmans et al., 2021).

These magma reservoirs are named the Halema’uma’u reservoir and the south caldera reservoir.

The May intrusion is especially fascinating because the activity reported on the land survey
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included both the Halema’uma’u reservoir and the south caldera reservoir, along with this, the

activity was related to the overflow of Kīlauea’s lava lake (Bemelmans et al., 2021). The scientist

used modern modeling techniques to understand the volcano’s summit magnetism along with the

complex magma system. The surveys showed a seismic tilt that affected the lava lake (Fig 4),

these events usually happen due to the built up pressure of Halema’uma’u reservoir (Bemelmans

et al., 2021). The tilt was tracked in four locations across Kīlauea (Bemelmans et al., 2021).

After further testing, the scientists were able to conclude that the tilt and build up of pressure was

due to a magma influx and drainage to the East Rift Zone (Bemelmans et al., 2021). The odd

phenomenon was caused by four factors: an increase in the rate that magma is supplied to the

volcano and there may have been a surge that caused the pressure build up (Bemelmans et al.,

2021). Additionally, the East Rift Zone had become less effective as a drainage path, eventually

causing magma back up to Kīlauea’s summit (Bemelmans et al., 2021). Finally the filling in of

the Halema’uma’u reservoir and the south caldera reservoir, if these filled up there would be a

huge pressure increase which may have been what caused the deformation (Bemelmans et al.,

2021). It is believed that it is a combination of these procedures

Metal Isotope Signatures in Seawater

The third phenomenon is when the 2018 eruptions of Kīlauea caused a large amount of

magma to be distributed in the ocean, this changed the chemistry of the surrounding water, and

caused a phytoplankton bloom (Hawco et al., 2020). After the eruption, scientists noticed a rise

in concentration of metals found in the seawater. Over twelve of the metals are native to

seawater, five of the metals were not and had characteristic isotopic compositions (Hawco et al.,

2020). The five non native metals were Fe, Cu, Ni, Cd, and Zn (Hawco et al., 2020). The lava

reached the ocean on May 23, 2018, a fissure was the main feature gushing lava into the
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surrounding ocean water, which subsequently caused a phytoplankton boom caught on satellite

(Fig 5) (Hawco et al., 2020). The satellites picked up large amounts of chlorophyll a, showing

the large numbers of phytoplankton, This continued until August 4th of 2018, when the eruption

weakened (Hawco et al., 2020). In order to test if the phytoplankton bloom was caused by

Kīlauea’s eruption, scientists set out to take water samples from the lava entry site on July 13th

to the 17th (Hawco et al., 2020). The scientists stated, “In situ measurements of chlorophyll a

exceeded 0.6 μg L−1 and coincided with geochemical markers of lava-seawater interaction, such

as high concentrations of silicate and metals”, simply meaning that the metals found in the

surround water after the eruption may have caused the bloom (Hawco et al., 2020). Elevated

nitrate levels were also recorded, this suggested warmed mesopelagic waters, which are rich in

nitrates and aid in phytoplankton production (Hawco et al., 2020). During the days of taking

samples, water was collected in 50 militer tubes with no metal on them taken every ten minutes.

The tubes were disinfected and soaked overnight in 2% alconox, rinsed with water that had a size

of 18.2 MΩ-cm, and 10% hydrocholric acid was used to soak the bottles for an additional week

(Hawco et al., 2020). The ship that was taken to collect the samples used a ECO-triplet

fluorometer to measure the fluorescence of chlorophyll a (Hawco et al., 2020).

The sample bottles were acidified to a pH of 1.8, and left to sit out for one month. The

metals found were tested by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, a device that can

analyze and detect most elements on the periodic table (Hawco et al., 2020). Trace amounts of

Pr, Sm, Eu, Mo, Cd, Pd, Sn, Ce, Nd and La were measured while medium amounts of Zn, Cu,

Ni, Fe, Mn and Co were measured and finally large amounts of Ni, Cu, Fe, Cd, and Zn were

measured at a consistent abundance (Hawco et al., 2020). These metal samples were refined by

anion exchange chromatography in order to prepare for isotopic analysis, which would determine
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the stability and composition of isotopes (Hawco et al., 2020). The compositions of Ni, Fe, Zn,

Cu and Cd were calculated in the waters affected by Kīlauea. The total dissolvable iron found in

the samples ranged from −0.62‰ to −0.47‰ (Hawco et al., 2020). The distribution of Mn,

manganese, has been traced back for hundreds of years and there is correlation between

manganese output and hydrothermal input, meaning manganese was the main element in charge

of the temperatures of the surrounding sea water. The scientist state, “Compared to dissolved Mn

concentrations (dMn) of ∼1.5 nM in background seawater, concentrations within the plume

reached 140 nM and overlapped with the highest chlorophyll a concentrations…”(Hawco et al.,

2020). Manganese was distributed by Kīlauea into the sea water via lava which inevitably caused

a massive phytoplankton bloom. Manganese has been observed acting similarly in hydrothermal

vents however the stability of the manganese in the Kīlauea samples is much higher (Hawco et

al., 2020).

Conclusion:

In conclusion, Kīlauea has great geologic significance, a deep rooted Hawiian history and

it affects thousands of people per day. Kīlauea has a huge impact on the surrounding

environment, eruptions emit chemicals such as hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen

chloride, mercury and other harmful gasses (Moussallam et al., 2016). There is also a volcano

village at Kīlauea’s base, making every eruption that much more dangerous for the surrounding

environment. There are legends still prominent and told today about the deity Pele, the god who

took the form of Kīlauea and is responsible for its volatile and aggressive nature. Pele is the

creator and destroyer of new land, this is fitting because Kīlauea has added over one hundred

square kilometers in lava, creating a new coast line while destroying countless homes and

businesses.
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There have been many scientific discoveries on Kīlauea, weather it be a possible redox

buffer or degassing, the summit inflation events that have been recorded by seismology or metal

isotope signatures that have been found to create a hydrothermal input inevitably causing a

phytoplankton bloom. Kīlauea is a mid-plate volcano, which is rare but does happen, close to the

shoreline subsequently distributing lava to the ocean affecting marine organisms, temperature,

and isotopic composition of the surrounding seawater. Kīlauea affects so much, even the Earth’s

mantle, making it very important to study and research to further understand why these

phenomena are happening and how it affects the planet and humans as a whole. In conclusion,

Kīlauea has greatly impacted everything in its vicinity, and more importantly more studies and

tests should be done in order to understand the full impacts of Kīlauea on its surrounding

environments.
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References

Bemelmans, M. J. W., de Zeeuw- van Dalfsen, E., Poland, M. P., & Johanson, I. A. (2021).

Insight into the May 2015 summit inflation event at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i. Journal of

Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 415, 107250–.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2021.107250

Global volcanism program | kilauea. Smithsonian Institute Nation Museum of Natural History

Global Volcanism Program. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2023, from

https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=332010

Hawco, N. J., Yang, S.-C., Foreman, R. K., Funkey, C. P., Dugenne, M., White, A. E., Wilson, S.

T., Kelly, R. L., Bian, X., Huang, K.-F., Karl, D. M., & John, S. G. (2020). Metal isotope

signatures from lava-seawater interaction during the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea.

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 282, 340–356.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2020.05.005

Liu, C., Lay, T., & Xiong, X. (2018). Rupture in the 4 May 2018 M W 6.9 Earthquake Seaward

of the Kilauea East Rift Zone Fissure Eruption in Hawaii. Geophysical Research Letters,

45(18), 9508–9515. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL079349

Lundgren, P., Poland, M., Miklius, A., Orr, T., Yun, S.-H., Fielding, E., Liu, Z., Tanaka, A.,

Szeliga, W., Hensley, S., & Owen, S. (2013). Evolution of dike opening during the March

2011 Kamoamoa fissure eruption, Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai`i. Journal of Geophysical

Research. Solid Earth, 118(3), 897–914. https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrb.50108

Moussallam, Y., Edmonds, M., Scaillet, B., Peters, N., Gennaro, E., Sides, I., & Oppenheimer, C.

(2016). The impact of degassing on the oxidation state of basaltic magmas: A case study
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of Kīlauea volcano. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 450, 317–325.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2016.06.031

NASA (2023, April 18). Kilauea Glows. Earth Observatory. Retrieved April 24, 2023, from

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150836/kilauea-glows

National Park Service (n.d.). Pele. NPS.GOV. Retrieved April 24, 2023, from

https://www.nps.gov/articles/pele.htm

USGS (n.d.). Geology and History by Kilauea. Retrieved April 24, 2023, from

https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/geology-and-history#:~:text=Since%20then%2C

%20K%C4%ABlauea%27s%20summit%20caldera,600%20m%20(2000%20ft)

USGS (2023, April 18). Kīlauea - Volcano Update. NPS.GOV. Retrieved April 24, 2023, from

https://www.nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/lava2.htm
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Figure 1: This figure shows the Kīlauea volcano with an infrared signature, indicating that it is
active and the village along its base. It also shows the two craters on the volcano. (Kīlauea
Glows 2023).

Figure 2: This figure further shows the lack of old rock on Kīlauea, making it harder to analyze
its geologic history. The red symbolizes the recent new lava flows, and the gray represents the
older rock that scientists use to study Kīlauea’s geologic history (USGS.gov, 2022).
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Figure 3: This is the olivine melt inclusion sample, one of the samples used to test if the redox
buffer is allowing the mantle conditions or if degassing is. The small bubble is the inclusion
itself, a small air gap that is filled with water in a slow cooling process (Moussallam et al., 2016).
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Figure 4: This is the survey of the seismic tilt that affected Kīlauea’s lava lake, the first graph
shows the earthquake count between March 17th and June 9th 2015. The second graph shows the
tilt measured during the summit inflation event. The third graph shows the lava levels of
Kīlauea’s lava lake during the inflation event (Bemelmans et al., 2021).
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Figure 5: These are the satellite images that caught the phytoplankton boom by detecting a large,
unnatural amount of chlorophyll a around Kīlauea. The bottom two graphs signify the bloom by
outlining it in black, the distribution and tracking of the bloom is in green and yellow (Hawco et
al., 2020).