Volcano Watch: Announcing winners of 2025 Volcano Awareness Month Art & Poetry Contest

“Volcano Watch” is a weekly article and activity update written by U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists and affiliates.

The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory spearheads Volcano Awareness Month each January on the Island of Hawaiʻi.

This year, in addition to in-person talks and walks around the island, we hosted the first Volcano Awareness Month Art & Poetry Contest, and we are pleased to announce the winners in today’s “Volcano Watch.”

Participants were invited to submit a poem in haiku format or art recognizing Hawaiʻi’s volcanic landscapes in the following age divisions: elementary (grades K-5), middle school (grades 6-8), high school and adult.

Nearly 60 entries were received, most from kamaʻāina.

Beautiful depictions in words and art highlight the diverse range of geologic processes and hazards we experience as residents in Hawaiʻi, including the most recent episodic eruption in Halemaʻumaʻu at the summit caldera of Kīlauea.

Many entries also reference Pele, the Hawaiian elemental forces associated with volcanic activity, highlighting the cultural significance of Hawaiʻi’s volcanic history.

In the elementary school category, Sunny Mallams, a fourth-grader who lives in Honolulu, won with her haiku, “Mahalo Pele”:

Lava shining bright

Giving birth to Hawaii

Mahalo Pele

“Pele’s Domain,” a haiku by sixth-grader Austin Kesterson, who lives on Oʻahu, won in the middle school category:

Boom! Pele is here

Her hair rises through the sky

Fiery lava flows

Ella Hillstead from San Francisco, Calif., won the high school haiku with “The Harmony of Hawaii”:

Waves lap, sun sets on

Board basalt plains of land forged

By Pele’s fire

Travis Paradea won the adult haiku category with the haiku below:

You take your shoes off

When you enter someone’s home

Even for Pele?

In the adult art category, Linda Hansen from Pāhoa submitted a painting titled “Kīlauea welcomes Christmas 2024.”

She wrote, “Kīlauea gave us a brilliant show on Dec. 23, 2024, as the caldera began to glow. The glow illuminated the walls of the caldera as the plumes of gas rose into the predawn sky.”

Students from Kaʻū High and Pāhala Elementary School won in the middle and high school art categories.

High school junior Añaza Nielsen won with their colored pencil artwork titled “Volcanic Activity,” which they wrote depicts the 2022 Mauna Loa eruption.

Nielsen said: “This artwork represents the thermal camera view of the flowing rivers of lava coming down Mauna Loa. This artwork was inspired by seeing the glow of the eruption from my home during the night. This is represented through the colors I chose for this artwork.”

Eighth-grader Andrea Yanga painted the winning middle school art, “Lava Flow,” using watercolors and ink.

She wrote that it shows “an ancient eruption of Mauna Loa where the lava flowed from the mountain to the sea. The glow rises from the vapors of the lava touching the waters of the ocean. The artwork represents the beauty and radiance of these rivers of lava that formed Hawaiʻi island.”

Milunaizarra Peltier, a fifth-grader from Volcano School of Arts & Sciences, won the elementary art division with her construction paper artwork depicting a lava lake.

She wrote: “I drew a lava pond because people don’t draw lava ponds as much.”

The votes were very close in many categories and we appreciate every wonderful entry.

Winners and a selection of pieces from other contestants will be on display during a scientific conference in Hilo the second week of February. The conference theme is caldera-forming eruptions at basaltic volcanoes, such as what occurred in 2018 at Kīlauea.

Gro Pederson, a geologist and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Iceland — and former Hawaiian Volcano Observatory volunteer, will be giving a special “After Dark in the Park” presentation at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park while here for the conference.

Join Pederson at 7 p.m. Feb. 6 at the Kīlauea Visitor Center Auditorium as she summarizes several eruptions since 2021 on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland.

Volcanic activity in Iceland, monitored by the Iceland Metrological Office, has hazards similar to those in Hawaiʻi: earthquakes, opening of new fissure systems, lava flows, tephra fall, volcanic gas emissions and land subsidence.

Voters were impressed and delighted by every entry in this year’s inaugural art and poetry contest. Mahalo again to everyone who participated in Volcano Awareness Month throughout January 2025 on Hawaiʻi Island!

Volcano Activity Updates

Kīlauea is erupting. Its U.S. Geological Survey Volcano Alert level is at Watch.

The summit eruption at Kīlauea volcano that began Dec. 23, 2024, in Halemaʻumaʻu Crater continued during the past week, with two eruptive episodes (6 and 7).

Episode 6 was active from the evening of Jan. 24 until the afternoon of Jan. 25. Episode 7 was active from the evening of Jan. 27 until the morning of Jan. 28.

Kīlauea summit has been inflating since Episode 7 ended.

Resumption of eruptive activity is possible within days if summit inflation continues at current rate.

Sulfur dioxide emission rates are elevated in the summit region during active eruption episodes.

No unusual activity has been noted along Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone or Southwest Rift Zone.

Mauna Loa is not erupting. Its Volcano Alert Level is at Normal.

Three earthquakes were reported felt in the Hawaiian Islands during the past week:

• Magnitude-2.3 at 10:13 a.m. Jan. 28 located 6 miles east-northeast of Pāhala at a depth of 20 miles.
• Magnitude-3.2 at 8:11 a.m. Jan. 28 located 1 mile southwest of Pāhala at a depth of 20 miles.
• Magnitude-2.6 at 5:15 a.m. Jan. 23 located 4 miles west of Captain Cook at a depth of 4 miles.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory continues to closely monitor Kīlauea and Mauna Loa.

Visit the observatory website for past “Volcano Watch” articles, Kīlauea and Mauna Loa updates, volcano photos, maps, recent earthquake information and more. Email questions to askHVO@usgs.gov.