It’s been a strange three months for the Hawaii island village of Volcano, where thousands of earthquakes have rattled the residents of this small mountainside town since Kilauea began erupting in May. Now, after a week of waning quakes, residents are holding their breath, waiting to see if this, finally, could signal the end of the eruption that has crippled the easternmost part of the island.
Volcano, a tiny tourist town nestled in a high elevation forest, is a scant five miles from the caldera of Kilauea volcano. Its location makes it especially vulnerable to earthquakes, which during July sometimes numbered as high as 800 a day, according to Kyle Anderson, a seismologist with US Geological Survey.
Ferns and Ohia trees line the streets of Volcano’s main road, punctuated by several restaurants, a general store and a post office. There is a skate park, a winery and an art center nearby. Under normal circumstances the village experiences only occasional earthquakes, residents said, but in the months since Kilauea began erupting, a “big one” hit “like clockwork” every day for months. Most of those larger quakes ranged between a 3.0 and a 5.0 magnitude, forcing everyone to grab whatever was nearby and brace themselves until the shaking stopped.
“I’ve heard from some people that they are getting a little traumatized,” said Adam Laning, the manager at Hawaii True Value Hardware store in Volcano. Early on, Laning said, he learned that certain items – motor oil, dish soap, six-packs – needed to be secured on shelves or the shaking would tip them to the ground.
Typically the daytime population of Volcano is about half local residents, half visitors on their way to and from Hawaii Volcanoes national park, Laning said. But these are not normal circumstances. The park is closed until further notice and tourism is way down.
“It’s turned this town into a ghost town,” Kathy Tripp, a 35-year Volcano resident, said of the earthquakes.
Many of the last months’ daily quakes hovered around a 2.0 magnitude or less. On a particularly active day, the more sensitive people in town felt dozens of them. Many residents said that as the days wore on, they began to distinguish between different types of shakes. Some came in waves, others felt like quick vibrations. It became a kind of secret language, prompting people in town to speculate about what activity was happening inside the volcano……more here