Posted on: Tuesday, December 16, 2003

Volcanologist from Hilo gets new job

Advertiser Staff

A Hilo native has been named scientist-in-charge of the U.S. Geological Survey's Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Wash.

Elliot Endo, a 1961 graduate of Hilo High School, began his volcanology career 41 years ago as a field assistant at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, where he helped in pioneering studies of cooling lava lakes in 'Alae and Makaopuhi craters. He also used his photographic skills to provide many of the best black-and white photos from the mid-1960s in the observatory's archive, according to a news release.

Endo's work has taken him around the world to study volcanoes in Alaska, Central America, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Saudi Arabia. While working at the USGS National Center for Earthquake Research in Menlo Park, Calif., in the early 1970s, Endo initiated the routine computer processing of Hawaiian Volcano Observatory seismic data — a new thing in those early days of computers.

He later helped design and install prototype satellite monitoring systems, and installed a 14-station continuous global positioning system monitoring network at Long Valley Caldera near Mammoth Lakes, Calif.

As a doctoral candidate at the University of Washington in March 1980, Endo was the first person to recognize volcanic tremors beneath Mount St. Helens that provided an early warning to the eruption on May 18, 1980.

In Saudi Arabia, Endo installed a seismic network and introduced GPS as a volcano-monitoring tool. In recent follow-up trips, the scientist advised the new Saudi Geological Survey on a proposal for a 100-station national seismic network.

His parents, Kazuo and Yayoi Endo, live in Hilo. Endo was married to the late Yukie Kimura of Kurtistown, who was a secretary at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Their son, Kevin, lives in Seattle.