Thursday, December 31, 2020. Status quo-ing Stabilities...

 How we wish for stability...but...might get bored.  That balancing act of growth, change, or stagnation.  The eternal rollercoaster.  On this chillcold (63dF at 930a) light rainy morning here on the heights... breezy tradebreezes push fogs, mists, and drizzles to Kaluapele.  Bring jacket and hot beverages.  Then a kīpuka of bluesky and teasing sunshine...change.

The succinct summary...No answers for the future, but good observations.  Pelehonuamea has always been and shall always remain inscrutable.  The work of science is, I think, to attain a degree of scrutableness to otherwise mysterious phenomena.  Because, as asked by every child Iʻve known: "Why?".  We all want to know The Answer(s).  But if we did, then what?  More questions, more wondering, more curiosities; all of which are excellent.

The K1 webcam in the still-standing HVO tower...a bank of white fogcloud at the left, and bluefume at the right...  Wispy fume typically indicates low pele activity, as corroborated by other webcams.

First below 3a 123020...a closeup of West Vents.  You can make out standing spatter cones, and a small burst of "strombolian" activity.  Like those bursts from  Roman Candle fireworks? kinda like that.  Intermittent, rather than continuous as in a lava fountain.

Early this morning with cloudbank in the distance.  Methinks the lake and island looks doughnutish.

At the bottom of the image, looks like two vents and a lakeshore spigot in the same West complex.

Above a closeup of West Vents.  The one on the left looks like a forno or horno...a stone, wood-fired oven.  The slope down is crusted over, and one outlet feeds the lake.  Incandescent zigzags are where lakecurrents tear the crust apart.

We can find forno, Portuguese stone ovens, scattered about Hawaiʻi nei.  This one was in use at Carvalho Park in Hilo on December 12, supervised by a longtime family friend and two of her daughters.  Passing on knowledge is really important.  How do you...??? Bake bread, make malasadas, make nishime (see below)...

And the pao doce (panduce as said locally), the sweetbread is a bit smoky, and crumbly; different than the squishy Kingʻs "Hawaiian" Bread I wrote about not long ago.  Hot-from-the-oven, a LOT of butter...YES!!!  Kona Historical Society in Kalukalu makes and sells rolls in their forno.  And thereʻs a puating looking one stranded in the parking lot across Hilo Hospital.  And one behind the Lyman House, by the museum, also in Hilo.  

The first F1thermal cam image below illustrates crustal plates torn apart yesterday afternoon, allowing hot pele to ooze out and flow, forming rounded pads.  Whitehot edges are recent.

And below, the moku lana au, the drifting island, approaches the spigot at the edge of the lake.  

I searched Papakilo, the database full of nā mea Hawaiʻi info, and found only three references to lokopele, what I gather is a lava lake.  Surprised that there werenʻt more, but perhaps folks didnʻt think it necessary to point out that Her work resulted in, or was in, a loko (lake).

And an extremely cool thing above... looks like Ka pae ʻāina Hawaiʻi (The archipelago of Hawaiʻi)!  And as is often seen along leeward Hawaiʻi, varied patches of orange...every body sing:  "Kona, i ke kai, i ke kai māʻokiʻoki (Kona of the streaked sea...).

Moku o Keawe, or Hawaiʻi Kuauli, or the Island of Hawaiʻi, of course is the nui-est, and, as in the mode of plate tectonics, drifts...  I am often amazed at what we get to admire, and how familiar things are made new or refreshed again.

And so...Yesterday I made a giant pot of nishime, that ono Japanese stew, for New Years.  Every year I make, and the 2018 batch was blogged:

So.  Go eat!  No drink too much...Be well... And pray for an excellent 2021!!!

As always, with aloha...

BobbyC

maniniowali@gmail.com

Wednesday, December 30, 2020. And yet another sunny morning...

 And She continues her work...I am always grateful for sunshine.  It elevates my mood and seems to make the birds happy too.  A bit breezy up here, but all is good.  The moon is fat, and moonlit nights are a favorite.  I remember playing cards by moonlight on the white sand at Maniniʻōwali decades ago.  Because we could.  And hoaloha crossing lava flows, pāhoehoe and ʻaʻā in moonlight, guided by white koʻa (coral) cobbles placed along the path as (moon)light posts.  And then, a night that lives in memories amongst a small group of us:  At Pāpaʻi, in Māhealani light, giving a palaka jacket to the surf:  "Nani wale a ka mahina..."

And on another of our fair isles, on a shore of Maui, from friend kr:

scent in the ocean

fish are drawn to the flower

throw net blossoming

Ahhhh Sweet, Evocative Memories!!!  And at Kaluapele last night, by the light of mahina and Pele...the KWcam seems to have been adjusted to allow better, clearer, viewing...And too, the moonlit sky allows a bit of perspective.

Looks almost like daylight from the Maunaloa Strip Road cam...

And for a bit of color:

The West Vents, at the bottom of the frame, continue to feed the lake...

The Update for this morning indicates not a lot of change:

Keep in mind that perspective is important.  Looking at a small part of a scene, or of a puzzle, will only give you so much information...Big Picture Perspective is important.

A Month

A Week

A Day

Of Tilt, that is...Long term trends are often most important.  Is magma filling or is lava flowing?  And of course situations change very very quickly...

OK then.  This is brief.  Headed downstairs to prep for a BIG pot of nishime... For those new to this blog, GoLook the post for December 31, 2018.  

Enjoy the day, and if youʻre out and about, WEAR A MASK!

As always, with aloha,

BobbyC

maniniowali@gmail.com

Tuesday, December 29, 2020. That morning glow...

 As I type, the just-risen sun fills the living room with yelloworange glow.  Already, just more than a week after winter solstice, shadow on the wall marks the towardsummer movement of the sun, just a few inches past the PostIt marker.  We mark time, though Pelehonuamea works on her own unfathomable schedule.  "What you see is what you get" couldnʻt be more appropriate.  No matter our selfish desires, we arenʻt in control, though we may think we are...

Shall we vote for Most Scenic Workplace???  Pretty sure the above would win.  Yesterday as the sun set behind Maunaloa and Pele played low-key, HVO staff were on the scene.  Please note the near-absence of clouds; a rare time at the summit of Kīlauea.

Just prior to sunset yesterday, this was a webcam view in the other direction.  Annotations hopefully clarify location.  Kūpinaʻi Pali is a traditional name for Waldron Ledge, a popular viewpoint near the Visitor Center.  "Kūpinaʻi", "echo" is what happens, especially if youʻre on the floor and call out to vertical pali.  From the top, hikers can be clearly heard chatting a few hundred feet below.

And please note that "moku lana au" is a descriptor, rather than a Name. Moku = island, lana = adrift, au = to flow, as a current.

These precious days of winter clear often come with light, variable, and even slack winds...rather than scud, clouds seem to stand still as they morph and shapeshift.

They appear to be standing still, though of course they arenʻt.  Gases in hot ascending fume cool and condense, form clouds, and constantly change...

A big blue sky, just ma uka of the Volcano dump yesterday.  The puffball looks like the ao māhu (cloud of steam) formerly hovering over the Lua.  Theyʻre related, but this Iʻd call ao uahi ʻawa, bitter (sulphurous) cloud.  LookGood and perhaps the fuzziness below the ao becomes clearer.  Gases from the active pit rise...

The thin, almost wispy plume of fume tells me that eruptive volume is fairly low.  Those feathery "white" markings on the left-hand surface of the lava lake are silver reflections off the fresh, unaltered, glassy surface.  Sun angle determines what part of the floor is reflecting.  The white walls of Halemaʻumaʻu, on the other hand, are highly altered loose rubble, baked rock covered with mineral precipitates.  Iron rusts, and lava close to vents, or in places like Haʻakulamanu (Sulphur Banks), are cooked...steamed...and minerals in rising gases are deposited on surfaces.

Tilt at Uēkahuna, for the moment, is declining...the surface of the ground deflates as magma is withdrawn and erupted.

The North Vent cones are active this morning, and flecks of incandescence dot the floor of the Lua.  Keep in mind that while the flor may look solid, itʻs composed of separate, thin, moving plates of various temperaures, as depicted below.

Recall that whiteyellow is hottest, darkpurple relatively coolest, and moku lana au and mokuliʻi and mokuliʻiliʻi (small and tiny islands) are cool too.

The image below is from the Maps page of the HVO website.  I appreciate before/after images...they help us remember what was, before often mind-altering landscape changes.  Note that the geographic orientations of the inset webcam images, and that of the DEM differ by about 90 degrees.

This graphic depicts the changes to Kīlauea Volcano's summit resulting from the eruption that began on December 20, 2020. Pre-eruption topography of Halema'uma'u crater, collected in 2019, is shown on the left and compared to the topography at the summit on December 26, 2020. The models show that the deepest portion of Halema'uma'u at Kīlauea Volcano's summit has been filled with a lava lake. The eruptive vents, both active and inactive, are evident on the wall of Halema'uma'u, as are the "islands" that migrate on the lava lake surface. The December 26, 2020, Digital Elevation Model (DEM) was created from aerial imagery collected that day during an overflight of Kīlauea Volcano's summit at approximately 10:00 a.m. HST. Since then, the lava lake level has not varied greatly. As of 11:30 a.m. HST on December 28, 2020, the lava lake level is 179 m (588 ft) deep. December 26 DEM by B. Carr. Graphic by K. Mulliken. 

Iʻll sign off, as helicopters, a big annoyance, thrum overhead...gotta head to town today.  The Update hasnʻt been posted yet, so Iʻll let you GoLook...

Be well, take good care of each other, and WEAR A MASK...

As always, with aloha,

BobbyC

maniniowali@gmail.com

Monday, December 28, 2020. Of places we adore...

 Yet another dazzling winter day.  Chill air, sunshine, all is good...

Apropos my comment Saturday about alohaing our ʻāina, it occurred to me to mention that songs celebrating place are an integral part of our culture.  If so inclined, one could sing ones way around each of our fair isles, recognizing the bestest aspects of place.  Sadly, many songs are being forgotten.  Theyʻre too old-fashioned; not current or in vogue.  Iʻm old-fashioned, and I adore them.  Many make for the best hula ʻauana...

Kaluapele sits proudly in the Moku (District) of Kaʻū, a vast area on the south part of the Island of Hawaiʻi.  And the song "Kaʻū Nui" is dear.  A few (several?) years ago I had the pleasure of being part of a UH Hilo huakaʻi (field trip) visiting places around the summit of Kīlauea.  We ended on the lānai at Jaggar Museum where the group sang...

"Kaʻū Nui" by Keauhou

I LOVE this!!!  "The wondrous beauty of Kīlauea" indeed...

And then, getting geographically specifically apropos, and slowing down somewhat, we enjoy Napua and her version of "Halemaʻumaʻu".  Ahhhhh

"Halemaʻumaʻu" by Napua

Apologies for differently sized text...I trust that they suffice.

So here we are...Grateful for the monitoring and documentation of HVO staff...

Sunrise today on the rim, shot by a geologist with the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, posted today on the HVO website...The area is CLOSED because of HAZARDS.  Including no moʻ road, uahi ʻawa, etc.

Pay Attention when you Go Outside!!!

The National Park Service posts signs and erects barricades to inform visitors and to educate them.  Unfortunately, too many visitors are seemingly illiterate, or think warnings donʻt apply to them.  "Ainokea.  I do what I like."  Thatʻs the mentality.  Then rescuers are put at risk... Cʻmon people.  BEHAVE...

But of course Iʻll guess that miscreants donʻt read or pay attention to this.  Gotta try but...

So The Tilt:

Going up but not too fast...This is for the last week, the blue depicts ground motion at Uēkahuna.

And I admit that Iʻm kinda obsessing over F1 webcam images...watching the island drift and the lake level rise and fall.  First, the ledge (lower right) cooling after being overtopped.

Then a couple hours later, being overtopped again... Amazing what you can decipher about the works of Pele by looking remotely at these thermal images...

and todayʻs Update...No big or notable changes...

Iʻm a fan of haiku, that poetry form of Japan.  I favor the 5/7/5 syllable lines format.  Observations succinct can be recorded, I think, fairly easily.  And ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi and English versions can be constructed too.  "Translation" is not a word I like, mostly because languages and their imagery can be unique, and one should be able to shift cultural thinking from one to the other.  Does that make sense?   Letʻs see, me ka mahalo piha iā ng for editorial comments:

moku lana au

ʻā i ke kai hulili

one ʻā mani

island adrifting

atop a silvery sea

cinder cooling

The HVO image above, a closeup of the then-active North Vent (with horseshoe spatter rampart), a shiny ropy pāhoehoe lake surface, and the rough-textured island on December 23, 2020.  In my minds-eye, when Pele first appeared at the shore of the water lake, her 2,000dF lava interacted with relatively cool lake.  Explosions ensued.  Solid pele accumulated in the vaporizing water lake, and tephra (cinder, Peleʻs hair, tears, and limu) rained and accumulated.  Thatʻs what happens when you have pele + water.

And a final, current views of Halemaʻumaʻu, from webcams more or less in the same position in the CLOSED AREA on the rim...

Below, what looks like white mineral deposits on the lake surface, Iʻm pretty sure is sunlight reflected off a thin layer of fragile glass.  A he nani maoli nō...truly beautiful...

And a map image from a similar vantage, for those concerned that She might overflow hither and yon, wreaking havoc and destruction...

probably not... But as weʻve repeatedly been instructed, over time:  Never predict or assume what Pelehonuamea and her kin have in store for us...

Till next time (probably Wednesday), as always, with aloha,

BobbyC

maniniowali@gmail.com

Sunday, December 27, 2020. She continues under clear sky

 Weʻve been fortunate that the weathers have been kind to us.  Mostly.  This morning, sky is clear, temperature is a bit nippy, with gentle breezes here at Keaʻau ma uka.  Last night though...I was wakened by flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder at maybe 230a.  In dreamfog becoming conscious, I heard paka ua...big fat raindrops paka paka paka on the iron roof.  And of course I immediately thought that the summit was exploding and gravel was raining down.  Of course.  That didnʻt happen, and I am grateful, but we think of these things.  The thunderstorm moved away, and I returned to slumber.

Found yesterday a new webcam.  Up on the Maunaloa Strip Road.  A bit pixillated are the images, but they work.

Seems a great way to watch sunrise online.  This morning we see tradewinds wafting the wispy plume toward Kaʻū (to the right from Kaluapele).  With the North Vent taking a rest, a hoʻomaha, much less fume is being emitted.  Many call the plume "smoke" or "steam".  Smoke comes from burning...wood or whatla, steam, from vaporization of liquid.  Fume consists of various gases released from magma as it surfaces and pressure is released.  Gases escape and rise up.  Yes, mostly water vapor, but also sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide and others.  The link below is excellent, from the University of Hawaiʻi Weather site.  But most times, just Go Outside Pay Attention...youʻll know whether or not itʻs voggy.

Whereʻs the vog?

And from our friends at USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory:

Monitoring Volcanic Gas in Hawaiʻi

And we remote watch and see what Pelehonuamea is working on at the moment:

Tilt seems to be flattening...perhaps an equilibrium of sorts, when incoming equals outgoing.  Maybe.

The first two images below...we see island drift.  The big one spins slowly and the small one not so much I think.  The colors shift, with purple cooler and yelloworange hotter.  The North Vent at the left edge remains quiet, while the West Vent erupts.

This morning:

Below, from last night, makes it seem the lake is aflame, boiling like crazy, but I think the brightness may be an artifact of a camera setting.

A camera in the HVO tower last night, a couple hours later,  shows us an ʻōhiʻa tree silhouetted in the fairly dim glow.  Pele illuminates the walls of her home, Halemaʻumaʻu, and broken clouds above.  The electrical outlet reflected on tower glass is a nice touch...

And this morning.  Nighttime, the kēhau, what some of us call the breeze that blows ma kai (toward the sea) at night as the land cools, blows down the slope of Maunaloa and carries the plume to the right as we see here at 822 this morning.  

Wind shifts as the day (and the land) warms, then normal trades waft fume toward webcams at 932a:

We remember that fresh pāhoehoe flows on the coastal plain had a shiny silvery sheen, as seen in the shot above of the surface of the lake.  The silver comes from light refracted off a fragile, thin layer of glass formed on the flow surface as 2,000 degree Fahrenheit pele freezes on contact with (relatively) frigid air.  "Pāhoehoe" is also the word for satin...pretty and apropos.

The Update for today.  We mahalo and aloha the hardworking staff at HVO for their diligence and dedication!  

Ok then.  Till tomorrow...  Be well, stay safe, WEAR A MASK!!!

And please feel free to email me questions...

As always, with aloha,

BobbyC

maniniowali@gmail.com

Saturday, December 26, 2020. Hmmmm. Whatʻs She up to?

 Always something new... On this heavy-skyed overcast morning, early webcam images were darkish and kinda gloomy looking.  So we went here there and here again as camera images were refreshed.

Itʻs a bit geographically challenging.  Maps are generally oriented with North at the top, South at the bottom, and East West right left.  But because of the cameras positions on a rim of Kaluapele, the North Vent is at the left, and the West Vent at the bottom.  Takes awhile to get that fixed in my brain.

I looked first at the KW cam:

What was the primary North Vent was dark at 731a.  Red pele at the bottom of the image from presumably the West Vent we saw active a few days ago.  And peering closely, the island now has a cliffed shore, and a low cliff is visible (the dark line) at the right (South side) of the lake.

Then we looked at Tilt:

It turned to inflation (upward) at 2a or so.  Hmmm

Then my favorite:  The Thermal Images...the first, last night at 750p:  North Vent happy, though on the South a piece of crust had foundered, turned over or sunk, making for the hot yellow white color.

And this morning (Auē! I failed to correctly save the 730a image), but 830ʻs will suffice.  North Vent dark, South rim cooler with that dark purple scalloped edge, and low cliffs ringing the island...looks like there was some drainback after North Vent went dark.  Kinda like during later episodes of Kīlauea Iki in late 1959...the vent was submerged, and when an episode ended, lots of pele drained back into the lua.

Back to topic...Then I looked at HVO Photo Video Chronology: This photo taken at 515a today. The West Vent playing.

As of about 2:40 a.m. HST on December 26, 2020, activity at the west vent in Halema‘uma‘u crater wall at Kīlauea's summit has increased. This photo, taken at approximately 5:15 a.m. HST shows fountaining at the west vent, and lava pouring from the north end of the fissure into the growing lava lake. HVO field crews monitoring the activity overnight measured the west vent lava fountains as at least 10 m (32 ft) high. USGS photo H. Dietterich.

And so Pelehonuamea continues her work.

Below at 851a, we see red at the bottom...

Then at 930, just a plume of uahiʻawa...though the horseshoe rim of the West Vent (at the left) seems better defined.  More drainback paha? Or less fume?  Or...

And then The Update at 914a:

Change:  The Only Constant.  Many seem uncomfortable not knowing.  They want clear, definitive answers.  But sometimes, no can... Especially when we arenʻt in charge.  So the Saga of Pelehonuamea continues... But I gotta say, playing detective is fun.  Looking, watching, observing, making sense (hopefully) of decades of accumulated knowledge, and trying to understand current activities...

The thing is, every luaʻi pele (eruption) is different.  Similar, perhaps, but different.  Iʻm thinking that after the 62 lūʻōniu (collapse events) during The Three Months (May, June, July 2018), the interior structure of the area under and surrounding Halemaʻumaʻu must be kind of a mess.  The piston-dropping analogy was used.  Concentric rings and partial rings of fracture, layers, strata of varying densities and thicknesses, and liquid pele trying to make its way to the surface through those mazes.  No wonder that vents start and stop or pause, that lava drains back to be recycled somewhere sometime.  And no wonder that weʻre left to wonder at The Wonder of it all.

And then too, we wonder...What are people thinking?  Those folks in Puna ma kai who seem to want everything back the way it was...Rebuild.  Rebuild roads so we can go back.  Rebuild utilities so can get light water and internet.  Rebuild my house.  I canʻt understand.

I recently responded to a couple of Letters to the Editor of West Hawaii Today:

And then in yesterdayʻs Tribune Herald, I saw this:

You know those bumper stickers?  The "Ainokea! I Do What I Like!" ones?  This is like that in my estimation.  I donʻt get it.  Might as well just bulldoze the whole thing, like they did with Puʻulaimana, the 1960 cinder cone at Kapoho named for Mr Lyman.  Bulldoze, sell the cinderlava, and be done with it.  No need Be Outside Pay Attention.  No Need.  Ainokea.  No Need Hawaiian Name.  Ainokea.  Just call um Estes Hill.  Nuff aʻready.

How very very sad...  And some wonder why some malihini arenʻt accepted here... Auē, Auē, Auē...

But in the end, for many of us, Aloha ʻĀina for our ʻĀina Aloha shall endure.  Always pau ʻole.

me ke aloha till next time,

BobbyC

maniniowali@gmail.com