Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Is Being Evicted Amid Federal Cuts

Image: Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, U.S. Geologic Survey, Wikimedia Commons

Observatory leaders have assured local emergency officials their public service will continue, but questions linger about how and where that work will happen.

By Marcel Honoré

For more than 100 years, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has kept a close eye on Kīlauea and other geologic hot spots to warn Big Island residents before eruptions, while training hundreds of volcano researchers from around the globe.

Now, the observatory’s staff faces eviction from their current headquarters at the Ironworks Building in Hilo — where they have been housed during construction of their new, permanent observatory — as part of the Elon Musk-led effort to end hundreds of federal leases early.

It remains unclear exactly how that lease cancellation will affect the observatory’s research and public services; no one seems to want to talk about it.

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