'Pretty good' earthquake rattles part of Big Isle

HILO » A magnitude-4.7 earthquake originating near Loihi seamount off the southern coast of the Big Island shook East Hawaii yesterday at around 4 p.m. but caused no damage, officials said.

Acting police Capt. Marshall Kanehailua said he felt the quake as a "pretty good jolt" at the Naalehu police station, 10 miles west of the epicenter. After the jolt, "it kind of rocked for a little while," he said.

His station in the remote Kau District suffered no damage and received no calls about the quake from the public. Civil Defense headquarters in Hilo also received no reports of damage.

At the Hawaii Volcano Observatory, head scientist Jim Kauahikaua said the quake was felt as far as Pepeekeo, 10 miles north of Hilo.

The quake originated 15 miles northwest of Loihi at a depth of 25 miles. Loihi is an active volcano, but such a depth would rule out any connection to an eruption.

Loihi was the site of about 100 quakes Dec. 6-7. Illustrating how estimates of earthquake strength can change, a Dec. 7 quake there was at first estimated to be magnitude 4.7, like yesterday's, but eventually was downgraded to 3.5.

Loihi experienced a 5.2 quake on July 17 and a 5.1 quake on May 13. In July 1996, instruments recorded more than a thousand quakes in a two-day period. A submersible later determined that the swarm was caused by the collapse of Loihi's summit and an eruption.