Photographing the Eruption
Tag: Hawaii
In the News
My Facebook post describing a last moment mission to the volcano caught the attention of one of our local reporters. Result? An interview and a little piece about volcano viewing carried on several of the local media outlets. Nothing serious, they are just trying to capture the event of the moment and the local response. Perhaps something positive in the face of all the tragic fallout from the Lahaina disaster that fills the local news. Not my first time in the news, but the first time in a while, it is always fun…
The First Few Hours
Watching the recent and repeated eruptions in the Kilauea caldera has made an interesting bit of info clear… The first few hours are the most spectacular.
Months of inflation Kilauea had stored large quanities of gas and built up a considerable amount of pressure, enough pressure to lift the megatons of rock above the magma chamber and cause the entire summit region to swell outwards.
Beween eruptions USGS geologists and armchair vulcanologists like myself keep an eye on the tiltmeters as the pressure in the volcano builds, awaiting the time that accumulating magma and increased pressure bursts through the overlying rock to begin a new eruptive cycle.
At 15:13 HST Sunday afternoon that moment came.
Continue reading “The First Few Hours”Rainbow Falls
2022 in Photos
With recent history having been a bit bumpy, looking back on 2022 is not too bad in out little part of the world. More than a few good memories.
Kailua Bay on a typical Saturday Morning 
PBR’s with Asparagopsis taxiformis 
Harvesting algae from the PBR’s at Symbrosia 
A raceway pond full of Asparagopsis taxiformis at Symbrosia 
Waimea Canyon 
Kīlauea lighthouse 
Kōloa sugar mill 
An air compressor rusts in the abandoned Kōloa sugar mill 
Sunset over Lawaʻi Beach 
The quintessential Alaskan charter boat anchored to fish halibut in Yakutat Bay 
Ben halibut fishing in Yakutat Bay 
A nice king salmon from Yakutat Bay 
Icebergs on Harlequin Lake 
A six inch gun emplacement from World War II at Cannon Beach, Yakutat 
Total lunar eclipse on Nov 8th, 2022 
Fred and Andrew Cooper at the earth’s equator along the Masaka Road, Uganda 
A street in Masaka, Uganda 
Line for the ferry at Nakiwogo, Uganda 
Kids come to see what we are doing at the fishing village of Kazinga, Uganda 
An older male lion (Panthera leo) 
Tour vans arrive to view a lion 
A Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis) on the shoreline of Lake George, Uganda 
A Rüppells starling (Lamprotornis purpuroptera) at the lodge in Katunguru 
A Marabou Stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus) 
An elephant visits the Kazinga Safari Lodge at Katunguru, Uganda 
A close-up of an elephant’s eye 
The Toyota Land Cruiser at Kazinga village 
The 2022 Mauna Loa eruption at dawn 
The 2022 eruption of Mauna Loa on the second day 
The 2022 eruption of Mauna Loa on the second day 
Sunset over Lawaʻi Beach
2023
As usual we rang in the new year staying quietly at home. Quietly? We may have been quiet, the neighborhood was not. I have always considered the amount of fireworks the neighborhood launches to be a rough economic indicator. Apparently this last year ws not too bad, the quantity of explosives launched over Waikoloa was impressive.
While Waikoloa was impressive, Honolulu was insane…
Our celebration? Testing a little telescope and enjoying a cup of cocoa at midnight.
With celebrations complete we shall have to see what this new year brings. There is some optimism and no complete disasters looming, which after the last few years is all I am going to ask for.
Playing Tourist
The dentist’s office is just behind the historic Moku‘aikaua Church, and just a block from Ali‘i drive and Kailua Bay. With an appointment at 9am on a Saturday morning this leads to the question… What do I do after the teeth thing? Deb is off teaching a class at the local sewing store, thus I am on my own.
Leaving the car in the office parking garage I decide to walk that block from the office to the bay, just walk about and play tourist for the morning.
It is a rough surf day, not bad, but a decent swell is sending water spashing over the seawall showering the occasional tourist.
Continue reading “Playing Tourist”Is it over already?
The question of the week… Is it over?
Eruptive activity began to wane at the end of last week,with the lava fountains diminishing, then disappearing over the weekend. Views in the webcams showed a steady decrease in activity at fissure 3 over the course of several days.
At this point no lava appears to be emerging onto the surface, with only a few dribbles left in the lava flow to be seen as minor glows across the flank of the mauna.
Oddly Kilauea, after erupting continuously for over a year seems also to have paused. There is no longer any visible lava or even a glow within the Halemauʻmauʻu crater.
Continue reading “Is it over already?”Mauna Loa Awakens
On the way home in the eve the red glow dominates the horizon. Going to work the next morning it is the plume on the skyline. The eruption is ever present.
When moving to the island fifteen years ago I had looked at the mauna and thought to myself… One day you will erupt, will it be during my time on the island? This though has occured to me many times in the intervening years… When hiking the lava flows in the saddle, when driving up and down Mauna Kea to work looking across at the many flows streaking the flanks of Mauna Loa. How many times have I looked up and wondered when? One day.
That day was Sunday, November 27th, 2022.
Continue reading “Mauna Loa Awakens”The Impacts of Sugar
The impact of the sugar industry in these islands simply cannot be overstated. For over a century sugar was the dominant industry in the islands consuming land, water, and people. These islands were shaped by sugar, physically and culturally.
So much of what you see today is a direct resut of sugar, many people and cultures that now call these islands home are descended from the immigrant laborers who came to work the plantations. These immigrants brought with them thier languages and so much more. So many traditions, foods, and words, blended with the Native Hawaiian culture to create the island culture we enjoy.
While this legacy is seen on almost all of the islands it seems most visible on the southern shore of Kauai, perhaps as these plantations were some of the last to shut down, and very little has replaced or re-developed in the area. Plantation towns sit in the shadow of rusting mills that loom over the landscape.
Continue reading “The Impacts of Sugar”