Hawaii – A Darker View

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.

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?

A Google Earth image of Waikoloa overlayed with a geologic unit map showing the various lava flows from Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, pinks are Mauna Kea flows while Mauna Loa flows are green

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.

Eruption Crowd

A crowd watches the September 2023 eruption at Kilauea Caldera

Yet Another Hurricane

It has been a wet weekend here as yet another hurricane makes a swipe at the island.

This has meant over an inch of rain and some strong winds at the house. A pair of 14,000ft mauna between us and the oncoming storms has worked as usual.

The windward side took the brunt of the storm, but this was a marginal hurricane. In general there have been no major impacts on the island beyond some localized flooding in the usual places and downed trees blocking roads.

I did deploy a new rain gauge this weekend, just in time for the deluge. An electronic tipping bucket of my own design that seems to be operating quite nicely.

Hurricane Hone passing south of the islands bringing wind and heavy rain the the Island of Hawaii on August 25, 2024

Tropical Stargazing

The NexStar 11" set up on the grounds of a Kohala resort for commercial stargazing — The NexStar 11″ set up on the grounds of a Kohala resort for commercial stargazing

Awaiting Dark

Ben Harmon checking the sky in anticipation of a good evening of observing at Kaʻohe

A Misty Night at Kaʻohe

While I have gotten plenty of telescope time lately, it has usually been morning sessions with the old Astrola in my driveway. This is a low effort and thoroughly enjoyable practice that I engage in about half a dozen times each month. Such sessions do mean that my 18″ telescope languishes for far too long in the garage.

I really need to change that.

Thus when my fellow staff at Symbrosia start asking for another star party it made a good excuse to get the big ‘scope out of the garage and under a dark sky.

The King’s Loop

The region south of Waikoloa along the shore seems to be a barren field of lava with little to offer beyond miles of dark rock and baking sun. That may seem to be the case, but there are surprising gems out in those lava fields.

The King's Trail south of Waikoloa — Looking along the King’s Trail south of Waikoloa

The plan? As usual hike the King’s Trail south from Waikoloa, but this time explore some of the smaller trails I had passed by in the past. Perusing the satellite imagery reveals a surprising number of trails through the lava. Considering the substantial effort it takes to cut a trail through the worst aʻa lava those trails must be significant somehow.

Tag: Hawaii