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).