Hawaii

Hawaii enters the crisis as both a geologically vulnerable volcanic island and a prospective front in the spread of the deep-sea worms. Reports that worms were swarming Kilauea’s southeastern flank turned a longer-term hazard into a possible target for intervention, though the evidence does not describe a completed operation there.

A volcanic slope under scrutiny

Stanley Frost, a volcanologist investigating the danger of unstable volcanic slopes, placed Hawaii on a list of islands that might be threatened by hydrate deposits and slope failure. La Palma was his foremost concern; Hawaii followed it, ahead of Cape Verde, Tristan da Cunha, and Réunion. Because Frost was not a hydrate specialist, he sought help from Gerhard Bohrmann, linking observations of volcanic terrain to questions about methane hydrates and their stability.

Frost pointed to Kilauea as a warning that volcanic flanks can move: a GPS network was continuously monitoring the volcano, and its southeastern flank was slipping seaward. He invoked earlier island-collapse disasters as evidence that the consequences of a failing flank could be severe, while emphasizing that the timing of such an event could not be determined. In this account, Hawaii’s danger is framed not as a confirmed imminent collapse but as a serious geological possibility that routine monitoring could detect only imperfectly.

From geological risk to a worm threat

The concern acquired a new dimension when a robot sent to Hawaii the previous day found the entire southeastern flank swarming with worms. The report places the organisms in the very area already associated with movement and possible instability. It does not establish that the worms caused the flank’s motion or that a collapse had begun; instead, their presence intensified the urgency of examining the island’s vulnerable slopes.

A proposed next operation

At the La Palma worksite, Frost presented the first deep-sea vacuum-cleaner designed to remove worms and said that Hawaii was the intended next stop. His plan connected the two islands within a developing response: equipment prepared for action at La Palma might next be used against the worms on Hawaii’s southeastern flank. The discussion also made clear that the proposed machine was not a universal solution for the wider crisis. Hawaii therefore remains a threatened site and a projected destination for intervention, rather than the setting of a removal operation whose outcome is shown.