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Lava flow from the ongoing eruption of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii has knocked out power and cut off access to an observatory that has recorded the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere since 1958.

Mauna Loa started erupting the evening of 27 November. Initially, the lava was confined to the volcano鈥檚 summit caldera, but on 28 November, the Northeast Rift Zone 鈥� a section on the side of the volcano where the surface can crack and split 鈥� also started erupting. This caused lava to flow upslope of the Mauna Loa Observatory, according to the US Geological Survey.

At 6.30pm local time on 28 November instruments at the observatory lost power, according to a from the University of California, San Diego. The observatory is run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and hosts instruments measuring changes in the atmosphere including the flux of greenhouse gases.

Without power, these instruments stopped working. For instruments that measure the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, it was the first time they have stopped keeping records since 1984, when the last eruption of Mauna Loa knocked out power for a month until a generator could replace it. The observatory itself does not appear to be threatened by the lava.

Researchers are now considering ways to relocate the equipment to continue measurements, says , an atmospheric scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the not the end of the record,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a gap that I hope we can fill.鈥� He says restoring power and access to the observatory may take months.

Many other sites around the world now collect measurements of atmospheric carbon, but the record at Mauna Loa is unique. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the longest continuous detailed record,鈥� says Keeling. Even short gaps in the data set can reduce its value, he says.

It is also of historic importance to climate science. Observations of atmospheric CO2 taken at the observatory produced the famous upward trend known as the , named after the researcher Charles David Keeling 鈥� father of Ralph Keeling 鈥� who conducted the research. This record, along with measurements from the South Pole, contributed the first clear evidence that rising levels of atmospheric CO2 were driven by the burning of fossil fuels.

The observatory was located on Mauna Loa to ensure measurements weren鈥檛 impacted by local changes to CO2, such as emissions from cars or cities. The lack of plants on the volcanic rock meant records also wouldn鈥檛 be affected by the respiration of nearby plants.

The observatory has made measurements of the concentration of atmospheric CO2 since 1958, nearly uninterrupted other than a period of a few months in the 1960s when operations stopped due to federal budget cuts, and during the 1984 eruption of Mauna Loa.

The elder Keeling鈥檚 first measurement at the observatory in March of 1958 recorded an atmospheric concentration of CO2 of 313 parts per million. In 2021, average atmospheric concentration of CO2 reached a record 415.5 parts per million and has continued to rise through 2022.

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