Hawaii on EARTH Magazine

Beryllium: the rain bringeth and the rain taketh away

Thu, 17 Jan 2019 13:39:49 -0500

A study of soils in the Kohala region of Hawaii's Big Island revealed that high rainfall and weathering rates affect the accuracy of beryllium-10 as a tracer of soil age and processes. Credit: Eric Tessmer, CC BY 2.0.

High in Earth’s atmosphere, cosmic rays collide with oxygen atoms, shattering the oxygen into smaller atoms, including radioactive beryllium-10. Atmospheric beryllium-10 that falls to Earth’s surface — in precipitation or aboard dust particles — is known as meteoric beryllium-10. Researchers often use the ratio of meteoric beryllium-10 to nonradioactive beryllium-9 in soil as a tracer of soil age and processes. As beryllium-10 has a long half-life — about 1.4 million years — scientists have used it for studies of both short- or long-term soil dynamics.

Geologic Column: A cautionary tale about "sleeping" natural hazards

Fri, 12 Oct 2018 12:29:50 -0400

USGS ShakeMap for the 1975 Hawaii earthquake foreshock. Credit: USGS.

Despite its lugubrious climate, the rugged, verdant landscape of the greater Seattle/Puget Sound area, to which I moved five years ago, is a natural attraction for humans and their many activities. The forested chain of Cascade volcanoes provides recreation and business opportunities. The Salish Sea, with its many islands and ready access to the Pacific Ocean, invites tourism and marine industries.

Down to Earth With: Volcanologist Thorvaldur Thordarson

Fri, 31 Aug 2018 20:17:56 -0400

Thordarson studies the 1995–96 eruption of Mount Ruapehu in New Zealand, where he witnessed the beginning phases of the eruption from a helicopter above the crater. Credit: courtesy of Thor Thordarson.

Despite growing up in Iceland, with Earth’s most volcanically active landscape as his playground, Thorvaldur Thordarson had no idea he would grow up to be a volcanologist. Nor did he suspect that his career path would take him all over the world to witness eruptions and aftermaths on six continents.

Down to Earth With: Volcanologist Scott Rowland

Fri, 03 Aug 2018 12:58:11 -0400

Volcanologist Scott Rowland, who studies Hawaiian lava flows and also works as a volcanologist on the Mars Curiosity Rover team, with the testbed rover at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Credit: Megan Kennedy-Wu.

Hawaii seems like an ideal place to nurture a budding volcanologist. Kilauea, on the Big Island, is one of the world’s most active volcanoes. And the terms used to describe the main types of basaltic lava flows — aa and pahoehoe — are Hawaiian words.

Maui reef degradation linked to contamination in coastal groundwater

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 14:25:27 -0400

Honolua Bay, Maui, a designated marine life conservation district, was one location studied by researchers examining links between land use, water quality and coral reef health at coastal sites around Maui. The bay is surrounded by a watershed featuring potential sources of nutrient runoff from human activities, such as golf courses and sewer systems. Credit: Hawaii Savvy, CC BY 2.0.

Submarine groundwater discharge — the flow of fresh and brackish groundwater from land to sea — can transport contaminants to coastal ecosystems. But little is known about the direct impacts of this process on marine communities. In a new study published in PLOS ONE, researchers examined links between land use, water quality and coral reef health at coastal sites around Maui, finding that anthropogenic contaminants delivered via submarine groundwater are a source of chronic stress to nearshore marine ecosystems.

Kilauea increases asthma risk

Wed, 28 Sep 2016 16:47:35 -0400

Hawaii's Department of Health maintains daily vog alerts and publishes advisories for vog conditions around the state. At the time of this image in 2009, the region west of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (downwind from the coastal plumes) had a vog advisory for people with respiratory sensitivities. Credit: image taken by the STS-125 crew.

Kilauea may be best known for its picturesque red lava flowing into the ocean, but new research presented this week at the Geological Society of America annual meeting in Denver, Colo., suggests that locally, the volcano may be known for something more dangerous: asthma. The new study links gaseous eruptions from the Hawaiian volcano to increased asthma risk for those living downwind, especially children.

Geologic Column: The notion of mantle plumes

Fri, 19 Aug 2016 14:37:13 -0400

The dome fountain shown here is about 20 meters (66 ft) tall and formed during the 1969-71 Mauna Ulu eruption of Kilauea Volcano, Hawai`i. Credit: public domain.

The article “The Question of Mantle Plumes” in the January/February 2016 issue of EARTH was a well-researched and educational reminder that the mantle plume model is far from established as an accurate depiction of circulation in the mantle. It reminded me of my personal, evolving trip along the plate tectonic road.

Benchmarks: July 1, 1912: Hawaiian Volcano Observatory officially becomes the first of its kind in U.S.

Mon, 01 Aug 2016 13:58:35 -0400

Thomas A. Jaggar Jr., seen here in 1916, prompted the establishment of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and served as its director from 1912 until 1940. Credit: USGS HVO.

Living on the fringe of an active volcano in Hawaii is a precarious venture. Because Hawaii’s shield volcanoes aren’t prone to explosive activity, you’re typically not threatened by violent eruptions such as would occur at Mount St. Helens, for example. On the other hand, the slow-moving, unpredictable lava flows can still overtake your home, even if it has avoided years of previous eruptions.

Mauna Loa's mysterious Ninole Hills were once a rift

Tue, 26 Jul 2016 09:57:04 -0400

The Nīnole Hills (orange area) on the southeast flank of Mauna Loa are suggested to be a failed rift (blue dashed line) that migrated toward the current Southwest Rift Zone (yellow dashed line). Credit: U.S. Geological Survey.

Hawaii’s Nīnole Hills, jutting out from Mauna Loa’s southeast flank, are one of the most striking features on the Big Island, though their geologic origins have long been a mystery. A new study looking at gravity anomalies under the hills is revealing that the hills are part of an older rift system that predates the currently active Southwest Rift Zone. The seemingly sudden switch from one rift system to another may provide some clues as to how Mauna Loa grew to be the largest volcano on Earth. “A lot of different ideas have been proposed to explain how the Nīnole Hills were created,” says Jeff Zurek, a geophysicist at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, and lead author of the new study published in Geophysical Research Letters. It’s been suggested that the hills could be the remnants of an older summit of Mauna Loa, or its predecessor, Mohokea, or that faulting and landslides could have created the unusual topography of the hills, or that they could be from an older, inactive rift system.

Benchmarks: April 1, 1946: Hawaii tsunami ushers in a Pacific-wide warning system

Wed, 06 Jul 2016 13:36:41 -0400

Antone Correa Aguiar, a railroad employee, is seen in the midst of floating debris just after cutting the cable to free the ship Brigham Victory during the April 1, 1946, tsunami. The ship was loaded with explosives; Aguiar freed it from the dock and it floated safely away. Aguiar's body was recovered later at Reed's Bay in Hilo. Credit: Pacifi c Tsunami Museum, Rebecca Lyman Enskine Collection.

This clock, once a centerpiece of a primarily Japanese community built on a low peninsula in Hilo Bay, now stands as a monument to the 61 people who died on May 23, 1960, when a tsunami struck at 1:04 a.m. Credit: ©Denys, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

On the morning of April 1, 1946, children were on their way to school in the small peninsula community of Laupahoehoe on the island of Hawaii (the Big Island). Curious about the fish that were flopping around in the sand on the beach, the students were too busy to notice the ocean sucking all the water out of the bay. Minutes later, a large wave — about 15 meters high — struck the peninsula and swept 16 children and five teachers out to sea.

Kilauea eruptions could shift from mild to wild

Fri, 29 Aug 2014 11:49:57 -0400

Kilauea is the most active of the five volcanoes that form the Big Island of Hawaii and one of the most continuously active volcanoes in the world. Credit: ©Shutterstock.com/Alexey Kamenskiy.

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano is famously effusive: Low-viscosity lava oozes out of the main caldera and two active rift zones along the southern shore of the Big Island. But scientists suspect that Kilauea’s eruptions haven’t always been so mild, and a new study is providing further evidence supporting that notion. In the past 2,500 years, at least two cycles of explosive eruptions lasting several centuries each have rocked the island. The switch from effusive back to explosive is likely to occur again, scientists say, but probably not anytime soon.

Living in the shadow of Mauna Loa: A silent summit belies a volcano's forgotten fury

Thu, 07 Aug 2014 10:34:10 -0400

Earth’s largest active volcano is taking a nap. And after 30 years, no one is quite sure when Hawaii’s Mauna Loa will reawaken. Odds are that it will be within the next couple of decades — and that it will be spectacular.

Kilauea's Explosive Past - and Future

Wed, 16 May 2012 19:37:43 -0400

Kilauea can produce flowing lava fed by colorful fountains — seen here in December 1969. Don Swanson, U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library

Even Kilauea's more gentle flows can be quite destructive, such as when lava took out this school in Kapoho in January 1960. U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library

Lava flows across Chain of Craters Road in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on May 5, 1973. R.L. Christiansen, U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library

“Namakeha and some other chiefs in the train of Kamehameha, went with soldiers to Ka’u [on the southern coast of the Big Island of Hawaii], to exterminate Keōua. But Keōua was at Hilo [in the east]. He heard of the invasion of the enemy and hastened to the scene of the action. His path led by the great volcanoe of Kilauea. There they encamped. In the night a terrific eruption took place, throwing out flame, cinders and even heavy stones to a great distance, and accompanied from above with intense lightning and heavy thunder … [O]n the second night and on the third night also there were similar eruptions. On the third day they ventured to proceed on their way, but had not advanced far, before a more terrible and destructive eruption than any before, took place …

Danger in paradise: The hidden hazards of volcano geotourism

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 18:41:52 -0400

Hawaii's Kilauea volcano often flows into the ocean, creating a beautiful but dangerous site. USGS HVO

Warning sign outside the visitor's center at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Megan Sever

Sandboarding is a popular tourist activity on Cerro Negro in Nicaragua. NicaPlease

In November 2000, rangers at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park made a gruesome discovery. The bodies of a man and a woman, in an advanced state of decomposition, were found near the site where lava from the Kilauea eruption flows into the sea, sending up plumes of scalding white steam. The area, aptly named the Eruption Site, is littered with chunks of tephra, a glassy volcanic rock, which are formed and ejected violently into the air when the 2,000-degree-Celsius lava is quenched by seawater.

AGU: Aloha, magma! Geothermal engineers drill into surprising lava

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Aerial view of channelized lava flow from Pu'u O'o in 1983. Photo is by J.D. Griggs, courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey

The location of Kilauea's Pu'u O'o crater activity in 2001. NASA Landsat

SAN FRANCISCO — While drilling deep into Earth, geothermal engineers struck geological gold, opening a never-before-seen window into a classic geologic process: how basalt magma becomes granite. The find, they announced at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union on Tuesday, could amount to the first magma observatory on Earth.

Mag.-8.9 quake strikes Japan, tsunami heads for Hawaii

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

The March 11 earthquake was preceded by a series of large foreshocks, beginning on March 9th with a magnitude-7.2 quake and continuing with a further 3 earthquakes greater than magnitude-6 on the same day. USGS Earthquake Hazards Program

A powerful magnitude-8.9 earthquake struck near the eastern coast of Honshu, Japan, today at 2:46 p.m. local time. The quake sent a tsunami racing across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii, making landfall just before 3 a.m. local time. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has more information.

Travels in Geology: Taking in Hawaii's Big Island

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

The Big Island of Hawaii, with two snow-topped peaks: Mauna Loa, to the south, and Mauna Kea, to the north. NASA Earth Observatory

For a bit of money, visitors to Hawaii can indulge their touristy impulses with a single night of mai tais and luaus. But take on Hawaii’s geologic hallmarks, and you’ll embark on a low-cost safari that will last you all week.