The usgs website is one of the best resources for some of your questions, and the scientists up at HVO & UH-H Geology have many public forums, so there are many opportunities to meet with them.
The USGS History page may help get with some of the past historical info:
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/history/main.html
UH press topo map (available at many stores) & USGS both have awesome maps that have the historical flows on the island mapped out
USGS Soil age map (Fairly huge file:
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1089/HawIsl...5_2007.pdf
From the few meetings I have gone to
The Pu`u O`o eruption is not in any way a "normal" eruption, either for Kilauea or any other observed volcano. The current almost 31 year eruption has been breaking records for longest eruption for a number of years now, so any questions on the normal of this eruption is that it is all new science being made every year. But the scientists estimate that approximately 90% of Kilauea Mountain have had lava coverage since human contact & 60% of Mauna Loa Mountain...so there is ALWAYS the potential of lava flow on these two very active volcanos.
The scientists have some indications that the Halema`uma`u Crater & Pu`u O`o may have connectivity, but are they 100% positive? doesn't appear they are that sure.... but they do often report the similarities with the inflates & levels in the status:
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/activity/kilaueastatus.php
The island reaction to earthquakes (more accurate is that the islands movement & density changes cause the earthquakes....) can be anything from nothing to fissures to subduction (the 1975 earthquake had a localized deviation that was catastrophic to campers in the area) to uplift (the Wood Valley ridge is a massive uplift feature) to horrendous slump events (think the Huge valleys on the NE of the island, including Waipio.... there are debates on wether some of the slump were single action land slides....and there are indications that the resultant tsunamis were Indo-Pac catastrophes - debris in Royal Gorge Park in Australia matches some on these islands...at over 300 meter elevation...
Of course the 1975 earthquake & many of the more recent micro ones are along a fault line that is the slide-plate of Kilauea sliding down the slope of Mauna Loa...this movement has been ongoing for a very long time....
And the real volcano danger on this island is Mauna Loa... the yearly lava output of Kilauea is nothing compared what Mauna Loa can produce....and the speed of Mauna Loa flows versus Kilauea can be rift to ocean in hours rather than Kilaueas weeks to months speed.
