When will Kilauea erupt again? One scientist believes it could take years

After last year’s Kilauea eruption, another eruption at the volcano’s rift zones could be more than a decade away.

A former Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientist told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that there are striking similarities between Kilauea and Loihi­, a small underwater volcano about 20 miles off the southwest coast of Hawaii Island. Loihi is not expected to rise above sea surface for at least 10,000 years.

Jacqueline Caplan-Auerbach, now a geology professor at Western Washington University, points to the last known eruption of Loihi in 1996 in which hundreds of quakes and summit collapses were associated with it.

Following that eruption, the seamount remained quiet for almost 20 years.