Kīlauea Update, Sunday, July 8, 2018, Subtle changes, paha...

Hmmm...Sometimes it takes awhile to get going.  Mulling topical topics, wondering what more there might be to say after 60+ posts, poking around, looking here and there, thinking...  Iʻm very visual.  Show me a picture, show me a plant, show me a rock.  Then, more than likely, Iʻll remember.  When I go somewhere, driving or hiking, if I pay attention, as in a favorite phrase quoted many times,

be outside...pay attention       noho i waho...a maliu

Iʻll remember.  A friend took me to a special place in the park, maybe 35 years ago or more.  Walking down, hiking over, take this fork, see this hole by the trail, turn now, see the horizon, see that tree, see how itʻs like your raised hand, fingers spread with wrist crooked sideways, see that?  Weʻre going there.  A decade or more later, the exercise was again successfully repeated.  And again.  Memory of place, landscape, colors, texture, wind, puʻu, pali, shadow, light...indelibly etched.  How that works, I have no idea, but am grateful it does.

Because I live where I do, and because what weʻre experiencing up here is hoʻopūʻiwa (stupefying on account of wonder to the max), much of what I write is focused on happenings in the neighborhood.  And, after 40+ years of associations with the park, places, friends and researchers up here, Iʻve got a lot of orts and leavings tucked away here and there.  How and when and where they surface is invariably and gratefully surprising.  

You know, watching Kaluapele being incrementally transformed, is THE most humbling experience.  Ever.  You think youʻre in charge?  Right.  You think you really really NEED to do that?  Right.  Oh.  And about those plans and that project and those ideas?  Uh huh.  Right....Right...

Iʻm remembering the red epidendrums growing in a little community on the floor.  Airborne seeds had probably been tradeblown from gardens at one or the other Volcano Houses.  Remembering humid-eyeglass-fogging-heat of Postal Rift Cavern.  And lush ferns and mosses and liverworts decorating skylights.  Remembering a little drystacked (I think) stonewalled roofless shelter near the then-rim of Halemaʻumaʻu, maybe erected in the early 1900s and then partly buried by more recent flows.  Like those structures at Kāʻilikiʻi.

Remembering.

And then we see (a poorly lit photo, yes)

and realize that although it may look vaguely like Halemaʻumaʻu did, steep-walled, flat floored, the background doesnʻt quite make sense.  The angle of view is wrong.  And the steam, abundant in crisp morning air is misplaced too.  Turns out, of course, that itʻs an addition-in-progress to the northeast edge of Halemaʻumaʻu.  Of course.

Below are two sets of views for your consideration and comparison.  Theyʻre crude screen shots, but given my lack of high-techability, they work for me, and perhaps for you too.

The first should be smaller in size, and the second full-scale.  Weʻll see how they turn out as blog-viewed.

Smaller:

The original size:

youʻll note, if you can read the headers, that the upper photo is dated June 24, 2018, and the lower, today, July 8, 2018.  Two Weeks Apart.

No wonder all these ʻōlaʻi, Magnitude 5 and greater in the last month.  No wonder.

And yes, I keep showing you the Before and After.  I have to keep looking at them, every day, because if I didnʻt, how would I make sense of it all?

And Pelehonuamea continues her stupefying work.

The thermal camera image below also captures changes, this time on the flow field at Kapoho.  Itʻs a mosaic of different images, thus the background color changes.

You see where the stream makes a ninety-degree turn near Four Corners intersection?  In the crook of that turn is Waiapele (a.k.a. Kapoho Crater).  The ma kai part of the main stream that fed muliwai a pele (her lava delta) seems crusted over, with the two side branches active.  Imagery such as this allows us to visualize the unseeable.  

Weʻll see...  Part of being an attentive observer is being able to pay attention to subtle cues and clues.  And more often than not, stash them somewhere for future reference.  Piecing together the puzzle sometimes takes more time than we have or want to expend at any given moment.

Change is happening in Keahialaka and in Kapoho.  Change is happening in Kaluapele.  For how long and to what extent is, of course, to be determined.

And I just checked again the KEcam (KīlaueaEast).  CLEAR sparkling beautiful...the new Northeast Bay.  Small version on top, full size following.  I hope.

Im headed outside...

The coming week will be hit and miss.  Lots of meetings, errands, etc.  Stay tuned, check your Bookmark.  Iʻll be back sooner rather than later.

As always, with aloha,

BobbyC