Magnitude 6.0 quake rattles Hawaii island; no tsunami

A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck about seven miles east-southeast of Honaunau in South Kona at 9:46 p.m., shaking parts of the state. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said no tsunami was generated, and USGS data pointed to a deep earthquake tied to stress f

At 9:46 p.m., the lights didn’t go out—what went out was calm. In Honaunau, the ground began moving with a force that felt endless, violent, and strangely personal.

The shaking came from a magnitude 6.0 earthquake that occurred about seven miles to the east-southeast of Honaunau in the South Kona area of Hawaii Island. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 3.7 miles east-southeast of the Honaunau-Napoopoo area along the western flank of Mauna Loa. at a depth of 14 miles.

No tsunami was expected after the temblor. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said no tsunami was generated.

Six minutes later, the island heard another jolt—a weaker magnitude 3.2 earthquake that struck just to the northwest of the first about 13 miles beneath the surface.

Officials at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said the quakes were not directly related to volcanic activity. In a statement. the HVO said. “The depth. location. and recorded seismic waves of the earthquake suggest that it was caused by stress due to bending of the oceanic plate from the weight of the Hawaiian island chain.”.

What followed was the kind of aftermath that turns “did you feel it?” into a longer conversation—aftershocks. The USGS said there have been several more aftershocks, but smaller than magnitude 3. More aftershocks will be possible in the coming days. but they are unlikely to be large enough to be felt or cause damage.

The scale of the shaking showed up fast in the public record. By 11 p.m. Friday, more than 2,500 residents and visitors submitted “felt” reports to the USGS website. By 2 a.m. Saturday, that number grew to more than 5,800 responses.

For Lacy Deniz, the earthquake’s danger wasn’t abstract. She described the violent shaking and damage inside her home in Honaunau as “like something out of a movie.”

“It was quite terrifying. It was very violent,” Deniz said. “Our house was literally shaking from side to side, and I think the scary part was the duration too. It lasted for quite a long time.”

Deniz said the force was strong enough that her mother had to shield her young son as glass came out of cabinets and fell to the floor.

“Thank goodness my mom was here,” she said. “My son was crawling on the floor, so my mom had to stand over my son and shield him because all the glass was coming out of the cabinets and falling on the floor. So she literally was getting hit by all of our dishes and trying to protect my son.”

Deniz said her family ran out of the home and, aside from some cuts, no one was seriously hurt. But when she moved back through the house, the damage was clear.

“Everything is on the floor. Glass is broken, all of our cabinets are open, our toilet cracked, armoire with our clothes, shelves, drawers, it just, it’s on its side and just toppled over,” she said.

Across the state, the reports stretched beyond the Kona area. Hawaii News Now received reports of strong shaking felt across the state as far away as Omao and Hanalei on the island of Kauai. Residents also reported strong shaking on Oahu in Kailua. Ewa Beach and Kapolei. and the station received calls from Makawao and Wailuku on Maui.

Those statewide experiences fit into a broader pattern the USGS has tracked. In the last 50 years, there have been 35 other earthquakes of magnitude 5 or greater within 60 miles of Friday night’s event. There also have been larger earthquakes, including a 7.7 Kalapana earthquake in November 1975. The quake and a resulting tsunami claimed two lives and injured 28 people, and caused $4.1 million in property damage.

More recently, the magnitude 6.7 earthquake beneath Kiholo Bay off the northwest coast of Hawaii island in October 2006 was felt statewide. It caused minor injuries, damaged roads and at least 1,000 buildings and triggered landslides. Geologists said this was also a deep lithospheric earthquake caused by the weight of the islands.

By Saturday morning, the message from the seismology remained consistent: no tsunami, a deep quake tied to plate stress rather than volcanic activity, and aftershocks that can continue—small enough that most people are unlikely to feel them, but close enough to keep the ground in their minds.

Hawaii earthquake Honaunau South Kona magnitude 6.0 USGS Mauna Loa flank tsunami warning center felt reports aftershocks Hawaiian Volcano Observatory