Gay Hawaii Travel Guild

Earthquakes

The Hawaiian Islands are the site of many earthquakes. Generally, they are caused by the islands' volcanic foundations. Most of the early earthquake monitoring took place in Hilo, by Sarah J. Lyman and her family. From 1833 to 1896, approximately 4 or 5 earthquakes were reported per year.^[3]

The state of Hawaii accounted for 7.3% of the United States' reported earthquakes with a magnitude 3.5 or greater from 1974 to 2003, with a total 1533 earthquakes. Hawaii ranked as the state with the third most earthquakes over this time period.^[4]

On Sunday, October 15, 2006, there was an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7, off the northwest coast of the island of Hawaii, near the Kona area of the big island. The initial earthquake was followed approximately five minutes later by a magnitude 5.7 aftershock. Minor-to-moderate damage was reported on most of the big island, including several major roadways rendered impassable by rock slides, and other structural damage, and effects were felt as far away as Honolulu, Oahu, nearly 150 miles (240 km) from the epicenter. Power outages lasted for several hours to whole days on several islands. Several water mains ruptured.

Linda Lingle, the governor of Hawaii made a statewide disaster declaration several hours after the earthquake struck. A tsunami alert was issued, but quickly canceled after sensor buoys failed to detect significant wave activity. No deaths or life-threatening injuries were reported.

Most of the earthquakes are reported by the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory established by the USGS.

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