Fieldwork at Mauna Loa summit, Oct 19-21

This was one epic trip, and as our supervisor Frank would say, "The mountain won." Mauna Loa is a formidable beast, especially if the camp stove that worked perfectly at 4500ft fails to light in the bitter cold of 13000ft. That was our first misadventure on the Mountain, but we survived the night without dinner and luckily were able to get another camp stove by hailing a helicopter to fly it up.

Sarah Iki, me, and Mango on the northwest rim of Moku`aweoweo at sunset.

Mauna Kea in the background! Luckily it was clear like this the entire time.

Hualalai in the distance and the sunset.

Lunch the second day tasted delicious with our fancy new (functional) camp stove! When we hailed the helicopter, I was reminded of the opening scene from MASH...

Digging in the dirt! Taking fine-grained samples to look for lithics...Erin looks excited, too.

Erin and I huddling next to the van while cooking dinner to avoid the wind.

Last day! Driving home, we stopped by this dramatic fissure. Lava poured into it from both sides to create a smooth surface.

All photos in this post are the property of the USGS.