This past March, a team of U.S. Geological Survey scientists — two of whom travelled from Hawaii — visited El Salvador in Central America for volcanological field studies and a workshop on lava flow hazards. Exchanges like this help to improve awareness of volcanic hazards in other countries, and they enable the USGS to better understand volcanoes in our own backyard.

El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America, sitting on the Pacific coast and measuring slightly larger than all the Hawaiian Islands combined.

However, the eight main Hawaiian Islands are comprised of only 15 volcanoes above sea level; El Salvador, on the other hand, has over 200! And that’s with a population of about 6 million people, about four times as many as Hawaii.

There are numerous volcanoes in El Salvador because it sits along the Central American volcanic arc, rather than atop a hotspot like Hawaii. Volcanic arcs form where an oceanic tectonic plate subducts beneath either a continental plate or another oceanic one; the ocean crust triggers melting as it dips into the Earth’s mantle, creating magma that rises to the surface through the overlying plate. Though El Salvador has five larger volcanoes with historical eruptions, numerous fault lines allow magma from the subduction zone to emerge just about anywhere. This has resulted in hundreds of smaller volcanoes, most of which have erupted only once.

Volcano monitoring in El Salvador is handled by the Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (MARN). In addition to tracking the weather and other natural hazards, a small team of volcanologists works to study the geological and geophysical dynamics of the country’s volcanoes, while maintaining a watchful eye for signs of unrest. The stratovolcanoes of Santa Ana and San Miguel have both erupted in the past 25 years, but even more destructive events have occurred in the not-too-distant past: San Salvador volcano sent a lava flow into presently developed areas in 1917, and Ilopango caldera had a regionally devastating eruption in the year 431.

USGS, through its Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP), has maintained a collaborative relationship with MARN for decades. Co-funded by the U.S. Department of State, VDAP has supported numerous technical investigations and monitoring projects at volcanoes in developing countries around the world. Meanwhile, many MARN volcanologists have even studied in the United States as part of the Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes (CSAV) course held every summer in Hawaii and Washington state.

In recent years, VDAP’s relationships in El Salvador have focused on geologic projects to describe the eruptive history and hazards of Santa Ana volcano and a broader effort to assemble a national “volcano atlas,” which will include locations, compositions, and — hopefully — approximate ages for the more than 200 volcanic vents in the country. Such knowledge will enable more accurate understanding and delineation of hazards associated with their eruptions, which are both explosive (ash-producing) and effusive (lava flow-producing).

The field work in March served both projects. Dozens of samples were collected to correlate and date eruptive deposits across Santa Ana, including three sediment cores from coastal mangroves and a montane bog that may contain distant ashfall from the volcano. Reconnaissance visits were also made to several monogenetic (single-eruption) vents scattered around western El Salvador to assess their genesis and ages.

Finally, VDAP sponsored a weeklong workshop on lava flow hazards and monitoring for MARN staff and partner agencies. Since El Salvador’s last lava flow erupted in 1917, none of the current team have responded to such an event. USGS scientists from the Hawaiian, Cascades, and Alaska Volcano Observatories discussed their experiences and best practices developed during recent eruptions at Kilauea and Mauna Loa in Hawaii, as well as Great Sitkin and Pavlof in Alaska.

While the USGS scientists learned plenty about volcanism in El Salvador during this trip, it also provided key insights to bring home to our own volcanoes. Explosive eruptions in Hawaii are relatively rare, but the ability to correctly interpret their deposits is critical to understanding potential future hazards. Additionally, the more distributed nature of volcanoes in El Salvador has led to interesting interactions between lava flows and their more-weathered depositional environments, not unlike some of Hawaii’s older volcanoes: Hualalai, Mauna Kea, and Haleakala. We thank MARN for the opportunity to visit and study their country’s volcanoes.

Volcano
activity updates

Kilauea has been erupting episodically within the summit caldera since Dec. 23, 2024. Its USGS Volcano Alert level is ADVISORY.

Episode 46 of summit lava fountaining happened for nine hours on May 5. Summit region inflation since the end of episode 46 indicates that another fountaining episode is possible but more time and data is needed before a forecast can be made. No unusual activity has been noted along Kilauea’s East Rift Zone or Southwest Rift Zone.

Mauna Loa is not erupting. Its USGS Volcano Alert Level is at NORMAL.

HVO continues to closely monitor Kilauea and Mauna Loa.

Please visit HVO’s website for past Volcano Watch articles, Kilauea and Mauna Loa updates, volcano photos, maps, recent earthquake information, and more. Email questions to askHVO@usgs.gov.

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) – For most kids, a birthday means cake, gifts and a reason to celebrate.

For more than a million children experiencing homelessness in America, it often means none of that.

Nonprofits across the country are throwing personalized parties for children in homeless shelters to make sure they feel special on their big day.

The Good Side’s National Correspondent Debra Alfarone takes us to a birthday party for Yalina.

In 2007, Frank DeLuz III donated a plot of land with sweeping views overlooking Hilo Bay to the Hawaii Island Portuguese Chamber of Commerce for one specific purpose: to build a cultural and educational center to preserve and share Portuguese history and culture on the island.

Now, nearly 20 years later, that vision is finally coming to life with construction of the center expected to be completed by March 2027 and open shortly thereafter.

It has been a long, obstacle-ridden journey for the HIPCC, with delays being caused by everything from lava flows and storms to COVID-19 and high cost of materials. But Marlene Hapai, former HIPCC president, said it will be worth the wait.

“You just have to wait your turn, especially when you’re a nonprofit,” she said. “You have to just say, okay, just be patient, no problem.”

She said plans for the center — which is being built on the corner of Komohana and Ponahawai streets — were revised several times to accommodate financial constraints.

“Originally it was supposed to be about 3,500 (square) feet. Now it’s considerably smaller because of cost,” Hapai said. “But, hey, you go with what you can get so it’s quality not quantity, so we just make it really good.”

The center will feature a main hall, archive room, resource center, kitchenette and outdoor lanai space. It will serve as a venue for cultural events as well as hosting educational materials and exhibits, one of which Hapai is especially excited about.

“We are going to have a 30-panel exhibit gifted to us from Portugal on the explorations during the golden years of discovery of Portugal,” she said.

She saw the exhibit on temporary display years ago at the Portuguese Consulate in San Francisco, and after she inquired about it, the consulate agreed to donate it to the center once it is complete.

Hapai said she feels it is important to have more physical documentation about Portuguese history, culture and influence on Hawaii Island, which stretches back to 1878, when the first Portuguese families arrived in Hawaii.

Primarily from the Azores and Madeira, which were experiencing an economic depression at the time, they were drawn by opportunities to work on plantations. Hapai said they also brought other skills and cultural contributions.

“(They came) mainly for plantations, but many of them were very skilled carpenters and masons and other things,” she said. “And you know, the culture that was brought … what we have today, the foods, the music, the dance, the ukulele, many became well-established in businesses.”

She said the center has also strengthened the connection between Portugal and the Portuguese community in Hawaii. When the Azorean government got word of HIPCC’s plans, Hapai said it reached out and offered to have the center be designated as a “House of the Azores,” making it part of a network of cultural centers around the world.

At some point, Hapai said, HIPCC could leverage this partnership to provide courses at the center, potentially including a certificate in Portuguese studies and cooking classes, among other offerings.

Hapai is far from the only one committed to seeing the center become a reality. Throughout the past 20 years, the support of members of the community is what has kept the project alive.

When the initial plans for the building proved too expensive, Mountain View architect and former HIPPC board member Blaise Caldera offered to create a new one pro-bono. And, when HIPCC was on the verge of giving up and settling for a pavilion instead, resident Theresa Perreira Zendejas donated her house to the cause.

“She had been to a number of our events, and she said, ‘Marlene, I want to give you my home.’” Hapai recalled. “‘I’m in the fourth stage of cancer, I’m not going to be around much longer … I want to see the center built.’”

After that, with additional help from a $200,000 state grant, Hapai said they were able to move forward with starting work at the site, which began in January of this year. In total, she estimates the cost of the project to be close to $3 million, including in-kind service donations.

“So, we have the money, and now we’re just dealing with the weather,” Hapai said, referencing the recent Kona low storms. “It put us way behind.”

Yet she is hopeful work will continue soon.

“Everything is working out, we just had to be patient,” she said. “It’s not going to be as big as we originally had hoped, but I think we’re going to definitely have the quality that’s needed, and we have a lot of community members that have their heart and soul in this.”

Email Grace Inez Adams at grace.adams@hawaiitribune-herald.com.