Just Needs a Tune Up
Category: Hawai’i
Exploring the islands
Out of Gas
A Visit to the Nation of Hawaiʻi
At the back of Waimānalo is a place separated from modern society through an act of sheer will. Here in rainy, windward Oahu is a valley ringed with impossibly steep cliffs, a pali that soars thousands of feet overhead draped in lush greenery. At the base of those cliffs is a place where an older culture finds a place to shelter, a place of refuge.
I am here to attend a tech event, a hackathon where various makers like myself use technology to solve problems. This event has been arranged by the folks of Purple Maiʻa, an organiztion dedicated to tech education. The theme this time? Instrumenting an ahupuaʻa, learning from the land by installing a network of instruments to monitor such things as temperature, water quality, stream flow, and more.
Continue reading “A Visit to the Nation of Hawaiʻi”Resort Telescope
Tephra
While enjoying and photographing episode 15 of the current eruption we got dumped on.
It was while photographing the spectacular fountains of episode 15 that bits of tephra began drifiting down on the crowded viewpoints along the crater rim. There was little wind and the enormous volcanic plume drifted over the eastern end of the caldera where thousands of people had come to view the eruption.
As I stood by the tripod I noted little clumps of Pele’s hair lazily drifiting down. Looking to see where it landed I note minute black gritty granules atop the camera and tripod. Oh lovely!
Continue reading “Tephra”Fountain
Fountain
Episode 15
Reading the tiltmeter data it was clear that the pressure was building again, an eruption appearing likely in the next day or two. The last episodes have produced ever higher lava fountains, I expect episode 15 to go even higher and I truly wish to see it when it happens.
Right on schedule the first lava appeared, a little rivulet of lava overflowing the north vent onto the crater floor. If the pattern repeated this would be followed by high lava fountains in the next ten hours or so. Episode 15 was on.
Tomorrow it would be, and as tomorrow was also a holiday for me, Prince Kūhiō Day, I would be free to make another volcano run!!
We are a go.
The same plan… a 2am alarm, hit the road, 4am in the park, hike to the Keanakāko’i viewpoint.
Continue reading “Episode 15”Geology of Waikoloa
While writing up my visit to Goat House Tube I was again wondering how old the lava tube was, it is clearly old, but how old?
Most of the Mauna Kea lava flows upon which Waikoloa sits are ten to twenty thousand years old, but the Mauna Loa flows that start just south of the village can be quite a bit younger.
Just a few miles south of the village one can find the 1859 Mauna Loa flow, the longest lava flow in the state representing a very long eruption that produced an enormous volume of lava. This is the flow that reshaped Kiholo bay, destroying the large fishponds that could once be found there.
Continue reading “Geology of Waikoloa”Goat House… Again
It has been a while since I last hiked out to Goat House Lava Tube. A bit obscure, the tube hides in the grasslands outside Waikoloa Village, accessible with a modest hike.
With the new eMTB this tube is even easier to get to. The power line access roads are rough, simple tracks just scraped into the lava, but fun. A good road to enjoy with a full suspension bike bouncing over the bare rock.
Continue reading “Goat House… Again”