Hawaii getting $420,000 for volcanic monitoring | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Hawaii getting $420,000 for volcanic monitoring | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper

Posted on: Friday, December 4, 2009

Hawaii getting $420,000 for volcanic monitoring

Advertiser Staff

Congresswoman Mazie K. Hirono, D-Hawaii, today announced that the U.S. Department of the Interior has awarded the state $420,000 in grant funding to modernize the monitoring of Hawaii’s volcanic sites. The money will be used to upgrade equipment and analyze data from recent eruptions. With the improvements, more reliable information will be provided to emergency responders, helping them to protect lives and reduce damage, Hirono said in a news release.

This federal grant is being awarded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The $420,000 in Recovery Act funding represents the University of Hawaii’s share of $7 million being awarded to 15 universities and state agencies nationwide.

These funds will be used to:

Continue the study of deposits and mechanism of the summit eruption of Kilauea Volcano, which began in March of 2008.

Create scientific models to further study the dispersion of volcanic gas in order to detail why some areas are harder hit by vog than others.

Develop more accurate ways of measuring sulfur dioxide gas emissions.

More information about the USGS Volcano Hazards Program is at http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/.

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