Kaluapele

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

14 October 2021

Thursday, October 14, 2021. Hoʻoemi pēlā paha? A waning...

emi

1. nvs. To diminish, reduce, depreciate, grow smaller, subside, wane, decrease, recede, ebb; to lose vigor, droop, lower; low, reduced, thin; reduction, decrease, loss; mitigated. 

Pēlā paha, maybe so, perhaps, probably so [very common].

Well then.  Where were we?  Yes, I know...She still going, but how come no posts?  Iʻm chuckling to myself, mostly because long-time readers have, if the need is truly there, the means to GoLook at various sites and links.  But...I know too that for many this is so much easier.  And so it may be.

Todayʻs title might be "Sputtering along", but given my rudimentary knowledge of ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, and given that "sputter" isnʻt in wehewehe.org, the Hawaiian Dictionary...I donʻt know how to attempt to say that.  So hoʻo (a prefix activating the verb) emi [hoʻoemi] it is.  

The west vent in Halemaʻumaʻu has been intermittently fountaining and spattering, most recently yesterday fluctuating between about 16ʻ and 33ʻ high according to HVO.  It seems that Pelehonuamea may be headed, perhaps, in the probable direction of a possible, though not at all probable, pause.  Howʻs that for qualifiers?  Because we simply do not know...And thatʻs the mystery of it all.  We donʻt know.

What we see is what She gives us at the moment.  Just now as Iʻm writing, see the brightly glowing lua?


And an hour ago, She was cooling...


And we watch, and wait, and shall see what transpires.  I walked to Kūpinaʻi (formerly Waldronʻs Ledge) this morning, and was there just after 930a.  Itʻs been windy up here, maybe 20-25 mph regular.  A bit too much to maintain balance going to Keanakākoʻi, so the shorter alternative, sheltered by trees, works well.


A lehua or two bloom, with a single wispy column of māhu; those vapors.  They hoʻokino, take shape, as two little puffs anchoring big wispy cirrus.  The sky and Maunaloa slope left of center is polalauahi-smudged, and vaguely tan, as vog makes it way around Kalae to settle on ma uka slopes, shores, and seas of Kona Hema and ʻĀkau, South and North Kona.

Below, view in the same direction from the B1 webcam of HVO, a squinty tiny bit of pele too.


And about the same time, up Maunaloa Road, that webcam lets us see the layers...high high cirrus, banks of ʻōpua toard horizon, and the bluish māhu blown from Halemaʻumaʻu.


And sometimes we look at the right time.  Misty rains blow in, but the floor of the lua is clear, with the reddish central isle of Kamapuaʻa, and the previous west vent, active December 2020 to May 2021.  It too reddish because of oxidized iron in the pohaku.  That west vent (wv1) grew when the level of the loko ahi was much lower.  The new west vent (wv2) has added nearly 140 feet to the depth of the lake, and has surrounded wv1.  And that bit of pele in lua wv2...


Keep an eye on those webcams...If you want to get REAL crazy, here are all of them:


A new favorite is toward the bottom, under

Mauna Loa Volcano, Northeast Rift Zone
[MKcam] Mauna Loaʻs Summit and Northeast Rift Zone from Mauna Kea


From last night, Maunaloa silhouetted.  Bright glow of pele in Halemaʻuʻmaʻu, and car headlights on the Saddle.  If you imagine really good, you can make out the flattish rim of Mokuʻāweoweo, summit caldera of Maunaloa.


And the Tilt, FYI:


And the Ōlaʻi, especially the M6.2 last Saturday.  Note the aftershocks in the same area.  The big spike on the right side of the above graph is it...


Hiki?  Pretty sure that catches us up with Pele mā.

In blooming news (aside from the stray lehua shown above), the yard is happy.

Ua hoʻomohala nā pua ʻōpelu...The first ʻōpelu (Lobelia hypoleuca) opened on Tuesday, and I was happy that gh got in close:


There are lots more to come, if you can see the spikes below.  ComeLook!


And what I call "common orange epidendrums" are going gangbusters.  Pretty convinced that itʻs because of The Warming.  Lots of flowers, and the plants are huge.  The kīkā in the background, the old-fashioned "regular" one, came to Hawaiʻi from Mexico, planted because Ilima asked 30+ years ago, that kīkā is happily seeding; something not seen before.


And from the Watanabe Floral website...TryCount flowers-per-inch...
Pua kīkā are hollow, and the mouth is kinda square.  Theyʻre a lei kui, a sewn lei, in this case, each little flower sideways through the middle, then as you push the flowers down the thread, each is slightly offset, giving the spiral design.  Lotta work!


And because itʻs been such a rainy "summer" kokiʻo isnʻt blooming much this year.  But when they do, theyʻre eyecatching in rain forest of mostly greens and tans.


More sooner rather than later, likely this weekend.

Till then, as always, with aloha,

BobbyC
maniniowali@gmail.com




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