Updated at 10:28 a.m., Tuesday, March 8, 2005
No damage from early morning Big Island quakes
Advertiser Staff
HILO, Hawai'i — Two earthquakes rumbled off the southeast coast of the Big Island this morning, but there were no reports of damage.Hawai'i County Civil Defense officials said they did not receive any calls this morning and that the temblors were barely felt in the Puna and Ka'u districts, closest to the offshore quake sites.
The earthquakes occurred within seconds of each other just before 7:30 a.m., according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
The first one occurred 10 miles northwest of the Lo'ihi Seamount, at a depth of 8 miles, and registered a 4.4 magnitude. The second earthquake was located 7 miles northwest of Lo'ihi, at a depth of 9.7 miles. It registered a 3.8 magnitude.
Lo'ihi is located about 21 miles off the southeast coast of the Big Island.
Because of the island's high level of volcanic activity, earthquakes are an everyday occurrence but most go largely unnoticed by residents. The two that occurred this morning were the largest in the past two weeks, when 31 quakes were recorded by the observatory.
The last destructive seismic event in Hawai'i occurred in 1989, when a 6.2-magnitude earthquake caused nearly $1 million in damage at Kalapana in Puna.
