Wednesday, July 10, 2019. What are we learning?

The rains of Barbara have passed without incident, and we dry out under partly cloudy skies, in humid airs.  Till next time.  The rain pretty much washed much of remaining lihilihi lehua (stamens) out of trees and onto roofs, gutters, the ground, etc.  With "The Bloom of 2019" nearly over here in the Volcano area, ʻapapane have mostly departed too it seems.  

After all...we clean and tidy up.  A friend was sweeping his garage roof, so as to ensure cleaner catchment water, and remarked on the "dreadlocks" that fell to the ground.  Tangled masses of lihilihi managed to stay in the bottoms of corrugations of the piula (metal roof...or totan in local Japanese).  And how could I resist?

The lehua obsession continues.  Weʻre waiting for seed pods to open so we understand approximate timing from bloom to seed.  Stay tuned for more on that.  

And a not-so-smooth segue to more learning...

flowing lava flows

repeatedly flowing through

centuries now still

And then I realized...not all realize, understand, appreciate realities.  A simple listing of dates does precious little to inform.  And so 1790, 1840, 1955, 1960, 1977, 1983-2018, are numbers without context.  And for that I sincerely apologize.  I get on a roll and blather on, expecting readers to be on the same page or wavelength, and of course that expectation is wrong.

So.  Thisʻll be a little foray.  Sketchy, but still a foray, back in time.  Without an understanding, however basic, of eruptive histories and consequences, of geography, of Pelehonuamea, of society, population patterns, and demography, of planning and land use patterns, and of Politics, how can actions with consequential future consequences be explained and justified?  Iʻd argue that "Because I said so" shouldnʻt, wouldnʻt, couldnʻt fly these days.  And past posts have explained, I trust, some of all this.  But people donʻt often read, much less understand Why? or Why Not?  So briefly, here we go...

First, tools:

The Geologic Map of the Lower East Rift Zone of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, by Richard B. Moore and Frank A. Trusdell, 1991.  DOI, USGS Miscellaneous Investigations Series, Map I-2225. 

Link to download Map I-2225


A USGS Lava Hazard Zone Map, with addenda by the County:

Lava Hazards and Communities

Bishop Museum Memoirs, Volume II, Number 4:

Brigham, 1909, The Volcanoes of Kilauea and Mauna Loa

And of course there are many others, but there are too many to list here.  

The Goal and Objective?  To inform and educate, so "we" donʻt keep repeating, ad nauseum, the errors of the past.  I know..."What makes you think youʻll succeed when all of this has been repeatedly ignored in the past?"  Hmmmm...Gotta try?  Iʻm a really stubborn Potagee?  Iʻm optimistic that somewhere, someone will "Get It".  One "Get":  Look at the map above.  Embraced between Highway 132 and Highway 130, is a tight grid of roads in the Purple area.  

Hereʻs an enlargement, with apologies for pixellations:

That tight grid in Purple is, of course, Leilani Estates, in the ahupuaʻa of Keahialaka.  In Lava Hazard Zone 1.  The entire subdivision.  And yes, LHZ1 is The Worst, The Most Hazardous.  Oh.  And the entirety of Highway 132 in "In The Purple" too.

The LHZs were created based on past eruptive behavior.  Dedicated scientists spend years in the field, arduously sampling, analyzing, and mapping flows.  Most of them work for, or are affiliated with, The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, in operation since 1912.  Their publications are numerous, published after rigorous review by peers (other scientists), and are an unequalled source of information regarding the geology of Hawaiʻi nei.  They know what theyʻre talking about.  But it seems that no one asks them, or if they do, answers are dismissed.  Or maybe thereʻs a language barrier.  Sometimes science talk doesnʻt translate easily into regular people talk.

OK, Bob.  Donʻt get sidetracked and start ranting.  Unproductive...

Geologist Robin Holcomb summarized:  90% of Kīlauea has been covered by fresh flows during the last 1,100 years.  If we accept recent archeological reports, Hawaiʻi was settled between 1200AD and 1275AD, based on radiocarbon dating of charcoal.  If we allow some slack in those dates as Pat Kirch has suggested, round it back to 1000AD.  So nearly all of Kīlauea has been resurfaced since who are now Native Hawaiians arrived.  As far as I know there were no big settlements on Kīlauea until...the 1960s?  Go read or browse "Land and Power in Hawaii" by Cooper and Daws.  Seems to me that Native Hawaiians were pretty smart in not investing in major infrastructure on Kīlauea.

So about that list of dates...These are mostly screenshots of the Geologic Map of the Island of Hawaii by Wolfe and Morris, 1996, as well as brief summaries from various publications.

1790:

In 1790, a notable event was the explosive eruption at the summit of Kīlauea which killed many in the army of Keōua, a rival to Kamehameha.  The map above depicts several branches of 1790 lava on the LERZ.  Two entered the sea SW of Kamaʻili, a big one at MacKenzie, another paralleled the rift but did not enter the ocean.  The sequence of events at the summit and at the LERZ is apparently not understood, though they sure seem similar to 2018, to 1840, to....

1840:

According to Titus Coan, a missionary based then in Hilo, Kaluapele had been filling, and for several days before (or longer?) the entire floor was in a state of intense ebullition.  Coan and others state that a rift eruption began on May 30, 1840 when a fissure opened at ʻAlae, a crater that was near what is today Maunaulu.  Fissures also opened on Kānenuiohamo, a small lava shield adjacent to and north of Makaopuhi, marked by the white crescent above.
[a hmmm note:  A definition of "hamo" is "To thrust through or split asunder, as with a spear].
Kānenui doing nui work, paha?  Or not... As I say:  I wasnʻt there and canʻt know or understand why many place names were bestowed.

In short order, a series of fissures opened down rift, the primary ones Pāhoa-side of Lava Tree State Monument, whose "trees" were formed in 1790.  "Terrific floods" of lava came out and entered the sea at Nānāwale, forming the Sand Hills (littoral cones) we know today.  Estimates were of streams a half to two miles wide.  The eruption lasted about a month, and was of very high volume, perhaps similar to what we saw last year.  1840.  Oh.  After that eruption, it was noted that the lava lake in the caldera had dropped 340 feet.  Hmmmm.  Oh too...a village at Nānāwale, presumably near the shore, was inundated and destroyed.

1955:

This one lasted 88 days.  Hmmmm.  About 24 (!) vents were spread over nine miles of discontinuous fissures.  6 miles of road were covered, resulting in the complete cutting off of access by land to Kalapana and surrounding communities.  Good thing they knew how to handle...  Twenty one homes were destroyed and 3,900 acres buried.  Sugar cane fields, farms...gone.  Oh.  And a new pit crater formed across from Mr Niiʻs house (USGS Photo, Jerry Eaton):

1960:

Kinda small by comparison, at 4 square miles, but nevertheless impactful.  Thirty six days were more than enough to bury the villages of Kapoho and Koaʻe.  About 100 homes, as well as stores, Kapoho School, a Waiwelawela (Warm Springs), Ipoho Lagoon (Higashi Pond) all gone.  Cinder was a notable byproduct.  Itʻs still being mined, and in the process Puʻu Laimana (Lymanʻs hill) the main vent, has been nearly obliterated.

1977:

A rift eruption threatened Kalapana, lasted 18 days, but flows did not make it to the ocean (the left-hand flow in white, above), nor did they destroy any homes.  The vent was named Puʻukiaʻi (guardian hill).  

1969 - 1974:

The Maunaulu flows in orange...while no homes were destroyed - the flows were entirely within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park - The Chain of Craters Road was buried, as were numerous important cultural sites:  trails, habitation caves, kauhale (residence complexes), etc.

1983-2018:

The Puʻuʻōʻō and Kupaianaha eruptions: 182 structures, mostly homes, in Royal Gardens, Kapaʻahu, Kalapana; Harry K Brown Park, Punaluʻu (Queenʻs Bath), Wahaʻula, Moa, Punaluʻu and other heiau, numerous other important cultural sites, the Kamoamoa Campground, Puʻumanawaleʻa and its petroglyphs, etc etc etc...All gone.  Entombed and "preserved", but gone.

And of course, in 2018...I shanʻt enumerate the losses at Keahialaka, Kapoho, Mālama, Ahalanui, etc etc etc.
And in 2019, how can we possibly contemplate, and worse, actually spend tens of millions of dollars to Recover, reBuild...  Mayhaps IʻM the one who simply doesnʻt get it.

Comments and/or corrections, as always are welcome.

Off to the market...

As always, with aloha,

BobbyC
maniniowali@gmail.com