Kilauea volcano (Hawai'i): strong seismic swarm on Ka`oiki faults

An unusual seismic swarm is occurring near the summit of Kīlauea volcano, Hawai`i, and continues to increase as of today.
The Ka`oiki seismic swarm began about 5 km (3 mi) northwest of Halema`uma`u Crater on 21 February and has produced more than 1000 quakes so far.
Increased activity overnight included 4 magnitude 4+ earthquakes amongst more than 70 additional earthquakes in the past 24 hours. 78 earthquakes were strong enough to be located beneath Kilauea in the past day: 74 quakes were related to the earthquake swarm, 2 were within the upper east rift zone, and 2 were on south flank faults.
Some of the quakes were felt at the Hawai`i Volcano Observatory where the shaking caused books fall off shelves, and minor damage was reported at the Volcano Golf Course, which is the closest inhabited area located about 3 km from the earthquakes' epicentre. Many of these earthquakes were widely felt on-island, including at our Hawai`i office near Kīlauea's summit.
Swarms in this area typically indicate movement between Mauna Loa and Kīlauea volcanoes unrelated to magma migration, but continued long-term pressurization of Kīlauea's summit complicates the local stress field and may have some bearing on the current seismic activity. Similar swarms have occurred in 1990, 1993, 1997, and 2006, some of which lasted up to several weeks.

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