Volcano watch: A team of crack geologists is measuring the Koa’e Fault System

The Koa’e Fault System connects the East and Southwest Fault Regions of Kilauea, south of the Caldera. Here cracks appear as low cliffs, or “cliffs,” along the Helena Bali Trail in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. These fault slopes slip during large earthquakes, such as the one that occurred on May 4, 2018, near the start of the Kilauea volcano 2018 eruption.

The Koa’e Fault System connects the East and Southwest Fault Regions of Kilauea, south of the Caldera. Here cracks appear as low cliffs, or “cliffs,” along the Helena Bali Trail in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. These fault slopes slip during major earthquakes, such as the one that occurred on May 4, 2018 – near the start of the Kilauea volcano’s eruption in 2018.

The movements of the Koa’e fault compensated ancient pyroclastic flows by as much as 15 meters (50 feet) over centuries. This area provides an important long-term record of movement due to the absence of modern pyroclastic flows covering the faults, making it an ideal site for studying the movement of the southern flank of Kilauea. More recently, malfunctions have replaced roads and footpaths that early Hawaiians used. So how much new displacement occurred during and after the 2018 outbreak?

A recent article entitled “Volcano Watch” detailed how geodesy, the science of measuring the shape of the Earth, is used to measure the shape of Hawaiian volcanoes. New technologies, such as satellite interferometry and the Global Positioning System (GPS), rely on satellites to perform geodetic measurements.

One of the ancient approaches, however, “settlement” remains a valuable geodetic method some 170 years after its invention. Scientists at the United States Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) have used it for decades to study our volcanoes, with important findings.

Since the 2018 outbreak, the Department of Geology at the University of Hawaii (UH-Hilo) in Hilo has partnered with HVO scientists to do an “old school” settlement where this is the best approach available. UH-Hilo has competent and motivated geology students, and over the years many have volunteered to measure cracks and faults.

The leveling uses telescopes that target handheld pitch rails, which are essentially giant vertical rulers, at well-positioned field stations. The equipment is used to precisely measure height differences between stations which feature stainless steel bolts attached to the bedrock. The horizontal distances between the terminals are indicated by ordinary measuring tape. If heights and distances have changed over the time period since previous measurements, repeat flattening will detect them even to the millimeter scale!

Settlement requires teams of people working along a steady network in the field, and it is time consuming. Field stations are usually set within about 300 feet.

Fortunately, USGS scientists first began settling the Koa’e faults in the 1960s, providing a long-term record of data and field stations that already exist. Around each leveling station there is a set of ‘crack substations’, allowing measurement across individual Koa’e faults and associated ground cracks.

Going back to the 1960s, we find that in a typical year, the roughly two-mile strip of land encompassed by the Koa’e Fault System expands about 1.5 cm, that is, just over half an inch. Individual defects move only a few mm, which is about 1/8 of an inch. In contrast, the largest vertical movement recorded during the 2018 earthquakes along a single fault was more than 16 inches!

When a Koa’e faults move, they either slide vertically or open up to form a deep crack. A dramatic example of the opening is Hilina Pali Road 2018 located near Kulanaokuaiki camp, which divided the road. The prominent slope that the road climbs is the result of repeated wrong movement over several hundreds of years. Shortly after the end of the 2018 outbreak, settlement revealed that rates of change along the Koa’e faults were rapidly returning to the much slower normal pace.

We learned several important things about crash system behavior from Koa’e’s ongoing settlement campaign. Most of the terrain along these cliffs is caused by large events. The disadvantages are also very effective “soil drivers”. Very few new cracks formed as a result of the major geological events of 2018.

Instead, the movement tends to continue repeatedly along existing incisions, causing them to open wider and make the incisions longer over time. The movements along the Koa’e fissures are also sensitively related to what is happening elsewhere in the volcano, even many miles away, such as the 2018 earthquakes under the southern flank of Kilauea and the frequent collapse of the Caldera summit.

UH-Hilo students, who work closely with scientists, played important roles in gathering and analyzing data that support these insights. So far, two groups of students have traveled to scientific conferences to present their findings. We are proud of the contributions these new researchers have made to the island community of Hawaii and the wider world of science.

Visit https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/hawaiian-volcano-observatory/volcano-watch to see past Volcano Watch articles, Kilauea and Mauna Loa updates, volcano photos, maps, recent earthquake information, and more. Questions emailed to [email protected].

Volcano Watch is a weekly article and activity update written by the scientists and affiliates of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory of the US Geological Survey. Today’s article was written by Professor Steve Lundblad of the University of Hawaii in the Department of Geology at Hilo.

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