A 5.7 magnitude earthquake hits Mauna Loa

On Friday, a 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck the world's largest active volcano — Mauna Loa on the Big Island — knocking items off shelves and knocking out power in a nearby town, but no major damage was immediately reported.

The quake, which did not cause a tsunami and which the USGS initially reported as a magnitude of 6.3, was centered on the south side of Mauna Loa at a depth of 23 miles, 1.3 miles southwest of Pahala.

“It shook us so hard it shook some of our knees a little bit,” said Derek Nelson, restaurant manager of the Kona Canoe Club in the oceanfront community of Kona, on the west side of the island. “All the windows in the village shook.”

The power outage affected about 300 customers in Na'alehu and appears to be related to the quake, said Darren Pai, a spokesman for Hawaiian Electric.

The earthquake occurred after 10 a.m. local time, less than two hours before another earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.6 that struck Southern California.

Mauna Loa volcano last erupted in late 2022. It is one of five volcanoes that make up the Big Island, which is located in the southernmost part of the Hawaiian archipelago.

Earthquakes in Hawaii can occur for several reasons, including the movement of magma beneath the surface. In Friday's case, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said the likely cause was the heaviness of the Hawaiian Islands and pressure on the Earth's crust and upper mantle.

That's what caused a 6.9-magnitude earthquake to strike Kiholo Bay on the northwest coast of the Big Island in 2006. That quake damaged roads and buildings and cut power to areas as far away as Honolulu, about 200 miles to the north.

The Hawaiian Islands are located on the Pacific tectonic plate and have some of the largest volcanoes in the world, said Helen Janiszewski, an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii in the Department of Earth Sciences at Manoa.

“There's a huge amount of rock associated with the islands, so that's why it's actually enough to displace the Pacific plate a little bit underneath the islands,” she said. “This force sometimes causes earthquakes.”

Janiszewski said this type of earthquake tends to occur tens of kilometers below the Earth's surface in the mantle. Earthquakes caused by stirring magma tend to reach shallower depths.

The observatory said Friday's quake did not affect Mauna Loa or the nearby Kilauea volcano.

There were no immediate reports of damage to telescopes atop Mauna Kea, another nearby volcano that houses some of the world's most advanced observatories for studying the night sky.

There was no visible damage to its roads or visitor centers, said Jessica Firacani, a spokeswoman for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. She said earthquakes are not uncommon, but this one was “more intense” than usual.

The Hawaiian Islands were built by successive volcanic eruptions over millions of years. The vast majority of earthquakes in Hawaii occur on and around the Big Island. An earthquake of magnitude five or more occurs in the state about once every year and a half, according to the Hawaii Volcano Observatory.

The Big Island is mostly rural and hosts cattle ranches, coffee plantations, and resort hotels. But it also has a few small towns, including the county seat of Hilo, which has a population of 45,000.

Big Island Mayor Mitch Roth was at an appointment with a cardiologist there and initially thought he was experiencing side effects from a procedure: “All of a sudden, I felt like I was dizzy.”

He said he immediately called emergency management officials when he realized it was an earthquake, and he was heading to Honolulu Airport to try to get an early return flight.

Grace Tapios, owner of Will and Grace Filipino Variety Store in Nalehu, said the shaking knocked her husband, who was working on their coffee farm in Pahala, to the ground. In the store, jars of mayonnaise and Filipino medicine fell off the shelves.

“Some things fell but didn't break,” Tapius said.

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Associated Press writers Mark Thiessen in Anchorage and Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed to this report.

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