That sudden beginning, when it takes place on the slopes of a volcanic island, creates concern about a possible catastrophic flank event. Most typical earthquakes happen along faults that have built-in brakes: motion stops once the stress is relieved between the two chunks of earth that are trying to move past each other. But activity may not stop if gravity becomes the primary driver. In the worst-case scenario, the section of the volcano lying above the fault becomes so unstable that once slip starts, gravity pulls the entire mountainside downhill until it disintegrates into a pile of debris on the ocean floor.

The slopes of volcanoes such as Kilauea become steep and vulnerable to this kind of collapse when the lava from repeated eruptions builds them up more rapidly than they can erode away. Discovering the silent earthquake on Kilauea suggests that the volcano’s south flank is on the move—perhaps on its way to eventual obliteration.

For now, friction along the fault is acting like an emergency brake. But gravity has won out in many other instances in the past. Scientists have long seen evidence of ancient collapses in sonar images of giant debris fields in the shallow waters surrounding volcanic islands around the world, including Majorca in the Mediterranean Sea and the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. In the Hawaiian Islands, geologists have found more than 25 individual collapses that have occurred over the past five million years—the blink of an eye in geologic time.

In a typical slide, the volume of material that enters the ocean is hundreds of times as great as the section of Mount St. Helens that blew apart during the 1980 eruption—more than enough to have triggered immense tsunamis. On the Hawaiian island of Lanai, for instance, geologists discovered evidence of wave action, including abundant marine shell fragments, at elevations of 325 meters. Gary M. McMurtry of the University of Hawaii at Manoa and his colleagues conclude that the most likely way the shells could have reached such a lofty location was within the waves of a tsunami that attained the astonishing height of 300 meters along some Hawaiian coastlines. Most of the tallest waves recorded in modern times were no more than one tenth that size.

Preparing for the Worst
AS FRIGHTENING AS such an event may sound, this hazard must be understood in the proper context. Catastrophic failure of volcanic slopes is very rare on a human timescale—though far more common than the potential for a large asteroid or comet to have a damaging collision with the earth. Collapses large enough to generate a tsunami occur somewhere in the Hawaiian Islands only about once every 100,000 years. Some scientists estimate that such events occur worldwide once every 10,000 years. Because the hazard is extremely destructive when it does happen, many scientists agree that it is worth preparing for.

To detect deformation within unstable volcanic islands, networks of continuous GPS receivers are beginning to be deployed on Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean, on Fogo in the Cape Verde Islands, and throughout the Galápagos archipelago, among others. Kilauea’s network of more than 20 GPS stations, for example, has already revealed that the volcano experiences creep, silent earthquakes as well as large, destructive typical earthquakes. Some scientists propose, however, that Kilauea may currently be protected from catastrophic collapse by several underwater piles of mud and rock—probably debris from old flank collapses—that are buttressing its south flank. New discoveries about the way Kilauea is slipping can be easily generalized to other island volcanoes that may not have similar buttressing structures.

1 Comments

1. 1. Bearbear 07:17 AM 9/17/08

   I have a question about this statement copied from your article,
   "Geologists have long known that water leaking into faults can trigger earthquakes, and nine days is about the same amount of time that they estimate it takes water to work its way down through cracks and pores in Kilauea’s fractured basaltic rock to a depth of five kilometers— where the silent earthquake occurred. "
   If the rocks are fractured already wouldn't the sea have penetrated the rocks at or below sea level? For every 33 feet of depth the're another atmosphere of pressure added, kind of like being in a leaking submarine where a whole bunch of rivets have let go; the water should already be coming in almost everywhere.
   Wouldn't this have a greater effect than a meter of rinwater percollating through the rocks?
   thanks. Ray

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