The U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) recorded a magnitude-4.7 earthquake located beneath the Island of Hawai‘i on Saturday, May 21, at 11:50 p.m. HST.

The earthquake was centered about 1 mi east-northeast of Kailua-Kona, at a depth of 7 mi below sea level.

Moderate shaking, with a maximum instrumental intensity of V on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale, has been reported widely across the Island of Hawai‘i and as far away as Kauaʻi. At that intensity, very light damage to buildings or structures could occur. The USGS “Did you feel it?” service (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/dyfi/) received over 1020 felt reports within the first hour of the earthquake.

Over the past 25 years, there have only been 2 earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 4.0 beneath Hualalai volcano, including Saturday’s event which was a primarily lateral slip along a sub-vertical fault and does not appear to be directly related to magmatic activity.

According to HVO Scientist-in-Charge Ken Hon the earthquake had no apparent effect on Mauna Loa or Kīlauea Volcano’s ongoing summit eruption. HVO monitoring networks have not detected any significant changes in activity at the summit or along the rift zones of Kīlauea resulting from the earthquake.

For information on recent earthquakes in Hawaii and eruption updates, visit the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory website at https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/hvo.