**This information is updated as needed. Last update 11/28/22 at 7am HST
As many of you have heard by now, the Mauna Loa volcano is currently erupting. The current eruption is only at the summit and the lava is contained there. Mauna Loa has erupted over 30 times in years past with the last time being in 1984. While every eruption is different, the experts have seen that the first few days of the eruption can vary and the location of vents and flow of lava can change rapidly. Given that, what happens this week will be very telling as to if the volcano will ever get to a point of it impacting your vacation. Ken Hon, Scientist in charge at Hawaii Volcano Observatory, said that at its current pace if the lava moves to a rift zone (where it could start moving down the slope) at its current pace it would take roughly 7 days. While it could change his expectation is that it would move towards the Ocean View area of the southern part of the island.
The Current State of Waikoloa Beach Resort and Mauna Lani
Typically when the volcanos are active it impacts the southern parts of the island. The Waikoloa Beach and Mauna Lani Resorts are located more on the northern part of the island. Due to this, there are no alerts or warning for the resort areas. We have seen significant lava flows back as recent as 2018. The largest impacts in the resorts then was in air quality.
Air Quality
As long as most vacation rentals have been around on Hawaii there has been an active volcano. The largest concern typically is the air quality. You can view the current air quality here. PM2.5 and SO2 are the two you will want to look at. These typically do have levels on the Big Island just due to the ongoing volcanic activity. You just would want to watch to see if it gets to a level that is unhealthy for you.
Helicopter Tours
In years past when the other volcano was really active helicopter tours sold out quickly. If you want to see the volcanic activity, a helicopter tour is the only way to do so.
Volcanic Activity and Earthquakes
With almost all volcanic activity there are earthquakes. We have earthquakes of smaller magnitudes on the Big Island hourly. Most of these are located on the southern part of the island. Occasionally there are some closer to the northern part of the island, but have only posed a threat to the resorts once in the past 25 years.
What Happens If It Gets Worse?
Weather it be COVID19 or the prior larger volcanic activities in years past, we have always tried to work with people to make sure they can enjoy their vacation and if that does not seem possible to work with them on booking for a future date, refund, etc. In the event that it looks like we will move to a warning or emergency state or the air quality begins to get unhealthy we will address reservations at that point. As this point, the authorities are not concerned about the resort areas on the Big Island of Hawaii.
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