Yesterday I made time to chat with a longtime friend, to catch up on our respective busynesses. She was having a series of PTSD moments after watching ʻōlaʻi pop up repeatedly on her Earthquake Alert Device. Those of us here near the piko of Kīlauea or down in Puna ma kai, in or near Keahialaka, often get excited at news of shakings, feeling shakings, or even the hale making its warm-up cool-down noises. And "Excited" not in a good way. The Three Months (May, June, July 2018) is indelibly seared...
So. In my (I hope) calm and reassuring voice, I explained...GoLook the HVO Seismic page. Address as shown below, then Click on "Seismic" under the "y" in Observatory...
Yesterday, the orange cluster at the bottom right were all red dots. Spooky-inducing red dots. Theyʻre all at Lōʻihi, our still growing, 20 miles offshore, 3,000 feet deep volcano.
These screenshots are from earlier this morning.
We are able to Search Alert Archives at
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vhp/archive_search.html
and find
The above Info Statement is about the red/orange/yellow/white (in order of age, with red the most recent) upper cluster of ʻōlaʻi, earthquakes, near Pāhala...
On the Seismic page, you can fiddle with different Filters to gain an understanding of what might be up (or down!). As we see above, the Pāhala cluster are mostly all deeper than 20km (12.5 miles). There was a Volcano Watch article about them last October:
VW: 10/10/19: Why do so many deep earthquakes happen around Pāhala?
Hypotheses, but no definitive answers...Mostly because itʻs impossible to travel miles-deep into the earth to see for ourselves, this kind of research is done remotely, using instruments, formulas, computer programs, etc.
Yesterday, there was a...Flurry??? Swarm??? [I vote flurry...shorter duration at the moment]... at Lōʻihi:
Shallower (all less than 20km or 12.5mi deep)... maybe Pele is moving inside, probing, exploring, causing pōhaku to crack and break. But...Iʻm not a seismologist. We await word from HVO from those who are.
And if we write longer than expected, the InBox provides. Please use your newly acquired "Search Alert Archives" skill for the full Info Statement, a portion screenshot-ed below, about the earthquake swarm...so much for my vote :)
OK then...Those whoʻve known me awhile know that among MANY other things, Iʻm a fan of place names. Researching, musing, wondering...What do they all mean??? Most of the time, since I didnʻt name a feature, and wasnʻt around when it was named, when asked what it means, I reply "I have no idea..." An honest answer.
But. In the case of Lōʻihi, we DO have an idea. And better, we have documentation. If my memory serves, Don Swanson, formerly at HVO, many years ago shared a bit about the documentation with me. Thatʻs all I needed to dig deeper.
Pacific Science, v9 n3 Scroll down till you see No 3, and the article "Submarine Topography South of Hawaii", published in 1955.
Now of course this is documentation of a modern, some say haole, name for the seamount under discussion. Weʻll get to a traditional name shortly.
VERY briefly summarizing from PacSci:
Kenneth Emery (not to be confused with the famed Kenneth Emory of Bishop Museum), who worked in the Department of Geology at the University of Southern California, being a curious fellow, got funding to conduct ~800 miles of sounding traverses aboard the USS Patapsco from June 29 - July 2, 1954 off the SE coast of the Island of Hawaiʻi.
Might be kinda hard to decipher, but the regular lines depicted above are the traverses. This project was meant to systematically gather info/data regarding seafloor topography. Then scientists wouldnʻt have to rely on random reports of the seafloor from ships passing in the night (or day for that matter).
Emery and crew found five features of interest:
And, at a time not necessarily know for its attention to details of Hawaiian culture, remarkably, Emery consulted with Mrs. Mary K. Pukui and Mrs. Martha Hohu at the Bishop Museum, as well as Dr. Gordon A. Macdonald, then Director of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory to come up with names for these "new" features".
He apparently described the physical characteristics of the seamounts, and the generous ladies at the Museum provided names in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi consistent with the forms of those features.
"Hohonu" was named because it was "deep as a pit or well, the deep sea", as indicated above, at 11,478 feet below the ʻilikai (the surface of the sea). The others, below, were also apparently named for their attributes.
So Lōʻihi, as itʻs known today, simply means "long". Perhaps similar to the "long" in Maunaloa... Current orthography for other names: ʻĀpuʻupuʻu and Pāpaʻu.
And then...And then time passes, tools improve, knowledge increases, discussions are had, research is conducted, and...
CD: Puka Kamaʻehu
Mrs. Pua Kanahele, Kumu Hula of Hālau o Kekuhi, translates this line, "Keiki ʻehu kamaʻehu a Kanaloa" in a traditional chant, as "The reddish child, the reddish child of Kanaloa (the elemental whose kuleana is the ocean). That chant can be found in Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, published in Honolulu, November 8, 1862. It was submitted by SWK Kekalohe of Kipahulu, Maui, on October 1, 1862.
If one has the capability to participate in various aspects of learning, we are sometimes able to discern meanings long-buried. Not every one knows every thing. Learning and understanding is a Kākou Thing. All are able to contribute.
Shall we??? Kamaʻehu a Kanaloa, or simply Kamaʻehu, is so much more laden with tradition than "Long".
Time for a HoloSolo...
As always, with aloha,
BobbyC
maniniowali@gmail.com
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