Earthquakes and Explosions: Shocking Events at Kapoho and Halema’uma’u in 1924

Precisely 90 years ago—on April 21, 1924—residents of Kapoho were evacuated as hundreds of earthquakes shook their village.  In the weeks that followed, explosions wracked the summit of Kīlauea Volcano, creating difficult challenges for staff at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and the Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park.  This evening, using USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory logs, geologic field notes, National Park Service reports, newspaper accounts, photographs, and other records from 1924, long-time HVO volunteer Ben Gaddis tells the tale of Kīlauea’s most violent eruption of the twentieth century from the perspective of the people who lived through it.