Kaluapele

On the Island of Hawaiʻi, Kaluapele (the pit of pele or Pele) crowns the summit region of the volcano Kīlauea.

22 February 2021

Monday, February 22, 2021 Observing Observations

 Itʻs been a rainy few days up here, with Kaluapele socked in some of the time, but we go out anyway.  Lucky for us HVO webcams on the rim of Kaluapele provide views into Halemaʻumaʻu, and thermal cams "see", even through hot rainsteam.

The UPDATE for today was early:

The Deflationary trend mentioned above, that downward slope at the far right of the graph:



Above, this morning.  Note the continued, albeit slow, growth of moku liʻi (or liʻiliʻi, if you prefer).  Four are strung out on the papa, the biggest very near the inlet being fed by the west vent, that glowing dot on the slope above the loko ahi.  The second in the line perhaps is new?  It doesnʻt appear in the image below.

Below, yesterday.  Was HOT.  Intermittent heavy showers cause intense steaming, thus the purpling of the background, and general image fuzziness.



On the February 16 helicopter overflight, at approximately 9:20 a.m. HST, thermal imagery was collected of the ongoing eruption within Halema‘uma‘u crater, at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano. This annotated thermal image shows the western active lava surface is limited to an area on the north, south, and west sides of the largest island. Lava continues to enter the lava lake from the west vent through an inlet at the base of the spatter cone. The warm ring around the edge of the lake is caused by ooze-outs as the lake surface continues to rise. The temperature scale is in degrees Celsius. USGS thermal image taken by B. Carr.

Kinda cool (!) that arc of orangepurple on the right-hand side of the papa, the crust of the loko ahi.  The entire crust, the moku nui and smaller islets embedded in it, floats on the molten lake.  So as the papa rises, thereʻs leakage at the edges.  Make a puka in a molten chocolate cake...deliciousness oozes.  Kinda the same thing.  Rock is an efficient insulator and so doesnʻt conduct heat well.  So even though the loko is molten, the eastern half of the crust is considerably cooler.  The Celsius scale on the right:  617.7dC = 1,143.86dF, and 12.7dC = 54.86dF.  Maybe not spot-on accurate, but you get the idea...

Just like my not-so-observant observations of oil bubbles when cooking malasadas:  not so accurate.

The delight full orbs above are, in my estimation, perfect.  Note the glassy bubbles I thought were a problem.  Not so.  The "problem" I commented on on the 18th turned out not to be dirty oil.  Iʻm now inclined to believe that the dark, not-so-spherical malasadas were that way because they were among the last to be cooked from a quadruple batch of dough.  Took a couple hours to complete, and by that time the dough had deflated enough so when cooked, the morsels were kinda pitiful blobs.  Tasty, but pitiful nonetheless.  
When frying in quantity, I suppose I go into automaton mode, and am not "present".  I donʻt observe every detail.  Iʻd be exhausted from the watching.  Good thing I take pictures, and better, that I look at what was before.  Above, from a couple years ago.  So.  A bit of quality control, tweaking process, and all will be better next time.
A high school classmate (!) wrote to say she made and was ono.  I was so happy to read that.  She and I have a low-grade fear of yeast.  What if no work???  Every time it does, but the anxiety is always there.  And it occurred to me that I should share a picture:

Gramma and Grampa Rapozo... Of course, just as I remember them...

And while poking around looking at pictures, one of pepeʻe hāpuʻu ʻiʻi, the one with bristly dark hair, rather than soft golden pulu pictured previously.


And for hk, over there in Kona ʻAkau, one of my all-time favorites:  Freesias.  Itʻs that season.  Or if youʻre in Waimea, Chinese lilies.  Oh the scent!!!


And, said classmate mentioned above was spending time with a Hawaiian Dictionary and the Mele I posted on January 28.  I was remiss in not following up with the Hawaiian English.  Mahalo piha to lk for editing!


The line that most causes furrowed brows:  With the pits for ʻuaʻu and ʻuala... I love saying the Hawaiian... ʻuaʻu a ʻuala...  The pāhoehoe between the two puʻu of Pāpapa is very shelly.  A lava channel there overflowed repeatedly and the flows are gassy, containing lots of blisters big and small.  Residents used the character of the pāhoehoe to their advantage, bashing pits into the surface with waterworn ʻalā (dense boulders).  Broken pōhaku were excavated and piled tidily, creating "planters" for ʻuala (sweet potatoes) and nesting habitat for seabirds, including ʻuaʻu (Hawaiian petrels).  More on this in the future...

OK then.  Another Hilo day.  Be well, wear mask, etc...

As always, with aloha,

BobbyC
maniniowali@gmail.com


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