February 2, 2024 — Deployment of temporary GPS sites in response to Kīlauea unrest

HVO deployed two temporary GPS monitoring instruments in the Ka‘ū Desert, with permission from Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. These sites will improve monitoring, hazard analysis, event response, and situational awareness in response to the volcanic unrest at Kīlauea that starting late January 2024.

One instrument location is at a pre-existing benchmark that HVO visits for annual GPS surveys. These data will be combined with previous measurements to continue monitoring and modeling. The second instrument is at a new location a couple of kilometers (about a mile) further southwest and co-located with other geophysical instrumentation. Both sites are telemetered, meaning HVO is able to download the data remotely from their office, eliminating the time and physical effort of needing to visit the sites in-person to collect the data. USGS photo by A. Ellis.