A Brief Orientation...

...just in case people can't place the locations that I'm talking about, here's a detailed map of the area around Kilauea:

I'm currently living in Volcano, the nearest village to the caldera. Pu`u O`o is the current outbreak area along the East Rift Zone, and you can see where Kalapana used to be. The last day of physical volcanology was spent at Kilauea Iki (the reddish area).

From my ground deformation classes during the past few days I've learned that the entire side of the island south of the East Rift Zone is steadily slipping southward on a decollement fault. This means that if the fault motion continues, the south side of the island will collapse into the ocean. If this collapse occurs suddenly, the motion will likely cause a gigantic tsunami that is sure to devastate the other Hawaiian islands (within 20-30 minutes) as well as other countries along the Pacific Rim.

It would be easier to determine what the motion is along the decollement fault if we knew what was going on ~15-20 km offshore (where a lot of the action is, supposedly). However, right now there's not a great way to determine submarine deformation due to complications arising from using acoustic waves to get a position on the sea floor. All we can do is use static or kinematic GPS stations on land to quantify how much each south section is moving due to tectonic forces.

In other non-geeky, non-geology news, here's a picture of the entire CSAV group on lava day with our two instructors, Wendy (physical volcanology) and Chris (seismology):

The one on the far right is my friend Katie from Carleton, can you find me? Hint: Look for the one with extra attitude.

Random thoughts:
-Today I got an awesome stocking-high tan line (aka sunburn line) from hiking and neglecting sunscreen on my legs. If it sticks I'll take a picture and post it...
-I'm looking forward to Kona, white sand beaches, and civilization tomorrow!

InSAR

WARNING: This is a SUPER nerdy post. Seriously. You have been warned.

Alright, here goes.

Today I learned about different ground deformation monitoring methods. Basically, they tell you if the ground is inflating or deflating (with up to mm- or cm-scale accuracy). My favorite method - and as it turns out, one of the best methods we have right now as a warning system for eruptions - is InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar).

The image above is of Kilauea caldera. Up is North, and the Hale'mau'mau crater is the smaller circle near the center of the photo. The rainbow colors indicate the direction of ground motion. Depending on the scale (which they DIDN'T include in this picture, unfortunately), if the outside colors of the fringe move from red to blue to green towards the center, then the phase of the wave from the satellite to the receiver decreases, which means the ground has uplifted (the receiver is closer to the satellite). This is the case for the Halema`uma`u crater - you can count the 'rings' or fringes from the outside to quantify the extent of uplift in multiples of 2.8 cm. The static-looking part of the aerial photo is where the vegetation is too dense for the InSAR wave to penetrate.

Oh, and if the ground around a volcano is uplifting, then the magma reservoir is likely coming closer to the surface (and you'd better start running). If the ground is subsiding, then an eruption is probably occurring and the magma is draining from the reservoir.

Anyway, I think this technology is pretty cool, and I like the colors.

Random thought:
-I'd like to send a special shout-out to the Twins, who swept the White Sox this week! I wore my old, faded Santana Twins shirt today to show support.

The Ohia Lehua tree

This is the story of how the hardy `ohi`a tree came to be.

`Ohi`a was a respected (and very good-looking) Hawaiian chief who once became the object of Pele's affections. Being the beautiful and powerful goddess of volcanoes, fire, lightning, dance, and violence, Pele is not one to mess with.

However, `O`hia was desperately in love with a girl named Lehua, and so he diplomatically tried to turn down Pele's seductive advances. Pele was jealous of Lehua, so she turned `Ohi`a into an ugly, stumpy tree with gray bark and pale green leaves as her vengeance.

The other gods were not powerful enough to turn `Ohi`a back into a chief, but they compromised by turning Lehua into the beautiful red flowers that blossom from the ohia tree. This way, `Ohi`a and Lehua could be united forever.

All along the rim of the Kilauea caldera, the native Hawaiians offer gifts to Pele that include lehua blossoms or rocks wrapped with leaves. When I first arrived here, I didn't expect to learn this much about Hawaiian culture, especially the fearful respect that everyone (Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian) has for Pele. Pele is described as jealous, violent, and merciless in many folklore stories, but I'm convinced that her portrayal is a biased one. Still, I wouldn't want to piss her off.

Aloha!

A week into my Hawaiian adventure, and I have yet to create a written record of my adventures, experiences, and musings about this bizarrely beautiful and deceptively dangerous environment. Today, thankfully, is my much-needed rest day. So here it is, a brief summary of the past week, mostly highlights because I'm too lazy to write about everything...

I arrived last Sunday to the Holo Holo In (without my checked bag, at first) and met most of the other students. I was initially surprised to see that I was one of the youngest, and even more surprised to learn that many of them had began their studies in a completely unrelated field and then switched to geology much later. It's good to be reminded that life is long enough to be fickle about some decisions.

The first day we were all scared with the stories of either stupid people who did stupid things near the volcano, or people who were incredibly unlucky and never came back from their hike. Most of the stories ended with "and they never found the body." Yup, it was terrifying, especially for one with asthma - I'm more affected by the SO2 fumes. The first few days were great because I was jet-lagged from the time difference, so I was actually awake in the mornings and was able to get ready for classes/hikes with time to call Kevin or my family. I doubt that'll be the case for this upcoming week. Who knows, maybe I'll turn into a morning person after all? (doubtful.)

The coolest day this week was last Thursday, which was deemed "Lava Day." We hiked upslope over a more recent lava flow field erupting effusively from Kupaianaha (a vent 3 km east of Pu`u O`o, the current outlet of the Kilauea magma reservoir). Beginning in 1986, this vent slowly invaded the town of Kalapana, destroying a few homes per year until 1990, when Kalapana was almost completely buried by lava. Right now the homes are buried by ~100 feet of lava. Most of the residents had post-traumatic stress disorder during and after the flows, not only because the destruction happened so slowly, but also because some houses were on higher topography (kipukas: islands in the middle of lava fields) and were spared. Apparently FEMA won't send relief money or help to the Kapalana residents because technically the disaster is still going on - how ridiculous is that? We drove past the site of the old town, and saw houses that were rebuilt on top of the lava.

It was an incredibly hot day, and we hiked uphill during the hottest part of the day over rough terrain. In order to keep from getting dehydrated (the most dangerous aspect of the hike), I drank a little more than 4 liters of water throughout the day. I was sweating buckets, literally. It was totally worth it, though. The active lava field could be heard from a distance due to the crackling of glass popping off the surface of the cooling pahoehoe lava. We sampled the lava (see video below) with rock hammers and cooked burritos wrapped in aluminum foil on the surface of a very-recently-cooled area of lava. Mine was charred on one side, but it was delicious.

So far, my favorite lectures focus on physical volcanology - going into the field and observing how the pahoehoe or `a`a lava behaves as it flows. The instructor, Wendy, is very cool and brilliant - I pretty much want to be like her when I'm older. On Friday we drove to the HVO near the rim of Kilauea caldera and met Don Swanson, a researcher at the HVO. He told us more about the history of Kilauea eruptions, including some folklore tales about Pele, the volcano goddess. These stories are fascinating because elements of the story correspond to actual eruption events, including the longest Kilauea eruption in historic time called Ai`la`au ("tree-eater") that erupted for 60 years. For example, one of the stories describes Pele's youngest sister digging furiously in the dirt with rocks flying everywhere. Sounds like an eruption, right? I'd love to learn more of ancient Hawaiian folklore, because I bet that several of the stories relate to eruption events. Cool, right?

Random thoughts:
-lava fields remind me of a landscape you'd expect to see in a movie depicting post-apocalyptic life. The vegetation (or lack thereof) starkly contrast the black metallic sheen of the cooled lava, and if there's the slightest bit of fog to obscure the view, the landscape seems to extend hopelessly.
-it's REALLY hot within a few feet of fresh lava. I'm lucky that the hair on my arms or eyebrows didn't burn off.
-I panic whenever I smell sulphurous gases. Yesterday I almost panicked enough to initiate an asthma attack. This is definitely something I'll have to get used to.

A hui hou (until we meet again).