The dry summit environment of the summit of Mauna Kea – The white points on the summit are the astronomical telescopes – Image courtesy Tony Romaine

Description: At 00:10 AM UTC October 20, a moderate earthquake with a magnitude of 4.5 and a depth of 18.8 km attracted our attention. To our surprise the epicenter was located below the slopes of Mauna Kea, an active shield volcano who’s last eruption occurred at approx. 2,400 BC.

Update 13:37 UTC :  The presentearthquake swarm is  not necessarily to be linked to volcanic activity since occasional swarms have been registered since 25 years. The swarms are linked to structural adjustments within the Earth’s crust due to the heavy load of Mauna Kea.
A similar earthquake swarm occurred in March 2010. The aftershocks (just like they are occurring now) continued for many days in a row.

Update 12:28 UTC :  Mauna Kea shield volcano is presently called “dormant”.

Update 11:13 UTC : USGS maintains her NORMAL green color alert (no problem)

Update 10:23 UTC : Since the mainshock at 00:10 earlier today, we noticed 38 other earthquakes. The shallowest of the +1 magnitude earthquakes was at a depth of 14.3 km.

The shallower earthquakes at Fern forest and Volcano have to be linked to the Kilauea complex.
21 km (13 miles) SE (137°) from Waimea, HI and 23 km (14 miles) SSW (199°) from Honokaa, HI

Earthquake swarm below Mauna Kea on October 20 2011

for more, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2011/10/20/mauna-kea-hawaii-intriguing-earthquake-swarm-below-the-astronomical-observatories-volcano/