Big Island Memories

Kilauea Crater from 10,000'. Note the lava visible through the vent.
Taken during an aerial tour of the Island of Hawai'i, September, 2008.
© 2008 and 2018, D.W. Drang & The Cluemeter

Same flight. Stark view of where the Lava field ends and the dirt begins.
© 2008 and 2018, D.W. Drang & The Cluemeter

If you clickabiggin this, you'll see a house and a car in the lava.
© 2008 and 2018, D.W. Drang & The Cluemeter

Looks dramatic, far less dramatic than conditions right now...
© 2008 and 2018, D.W. Drang & The Cluemeter

One of the vents (at least one) lets out right in the sea. Very dramatic.
© 2008 and 2018, D.W. Drang & The Cluemeter

The lava field, close up. Life persists .
© 2008 and 2018, D.W. Drang & The Cluemeter

A less dramatic view.
© 2008 and 2018, D.W. Drang & The Cluemeter

Even in 2010, there was a section of highway that was closed, you could enter during the day, but after sundown the entrance was shut off. Great view of active vents at the time. Far enough back that stabilizing the typical handheld camera (or cellphone) was a challenge.
© 2008 and 2018, D.W. Drang & The Cluemeter

And as the sun slowly sinks in the west...
© 2008 and 2018, D.W. Drang & The Cluemeter

Volcano Preparedness Month

Tomorrow (May 18^th, 2018) marks the 38^th Anniversary of the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens, in WA.

In case you weren't aware, that's kind of a big deal here in the Evergreen State, and in Emergency Preparedness, and in Vulcanology.

Therefore, May is Volcano Preparedness Month here.

(Every month is Volcano Preparedness Month on The Big Island: Hawaiian Volcano Observatory...)

One event commemorating VPM is that a group of scientists with the Cascades Volcano Observatory and the Washington State Emergency Management Division (EMD's Volcano page.) hosted a Reddit Ask me Anything session: We Are U.S. West Coast Volcano Experts. Ask us Anything!

This was fascinating, educational, and  entertaining.

Fun facts:

• Geologists do not use the term "overdue" when discussing the potential of a volcano to erupt. Volcanos do not maintain a schedule.
• The Yellowstone "super-volcano" is unlikely to erupt any time soon, and when it does, it will probably be more like Kilauea than Mount Saint Helens.
• Volcanologists become very territorial about their favorite volcanoes ("My volcano can take your volcano with one magma chamber tied behind it's back!" 
• The greatest danger from Mount Rainier is from lahars, which will strand Mrs Drang, the cats, and I on our own island. (seriously, the 98003 will become cut off from the surrounding terrain, that which isn't submerged...)
• The "'The floor is lava' game" gets very complicated when played by volcanologists.
• A volcano may cause the earth to shake, but earthquakes don't cause volcanoes to erupt. 
• Usually. If the volcano is right on top of a fault, maybe...
• Apparently, the only decent volcano movies are documentaries.  
• No, you can't drive your jeep over lava.
• No, you can't outrun a pyroclastic flow.
• No, you can't drill a hole and "relieve the pressure."
• Not even by detonating a nuke "down there."

For fellow residents of Washington State, the Department of Natural resources maintains an online hazards map: Washington Geologic Information Portal. Plug in an address and see how vulnerable that location is to various hazards from earthquake, volcano, tsunami, etc. (Like I said, fairly safe here in the 98-Double Ought-3, although for some hazards it's relatively safe...)

While researching this, I ran across an old article in The Stranger which may have some currency: Nine Questions for Sandi Doughton, Author of Full-Rip 9.0: The Next Big Earthquake in the Pacific Northwest - Slog - The Stranger.

• Now, if the Cascadia Subduction Zone cuts loose, we may still be on an island here in the 98-Double Ought-3, but I'm not sure it'll help...

Now it can be told!

Yesterday evening we returned from a Hawaiian Cruise celebrating our 25^th anniversary.

No, I don't know how she does it.

My parents joined us; other family members were either not able to change plans, or, in the case of many of Mrs. Drang's family, have bad memories of previous cruises, which typically involved 14 hour days of chipping paint and "hot-bunking" with some guy from Alabama...

Itinerary:

• Board San Francisco
• Four days at sea
• Hawai'i, AKA "The Big Island"/Hilo
• Oahu/Honolulu
• Maui/Lahaina
• Kauai/Nawiliwili
• Four days at sea
• Ensenada*
• One day at sea
• Disembark San Francisco

*Stop in Ensenada mandated by US Government regulations intended to favor US flag carriers, requiring that non-US flagged passenger vessels make at least one stop in a foreign port on any voyage. Other US Government regulations make it prohibitive to flag cruise ships in the US, so there are none. This makes Seattle an attractive port for cruises, since Vancouver and Victoria are so convenient; Ensenada gets the love from Los Angeles and San Francisco. Alas, Alaska is the only cruise destination convenient to Seattle, and that's not a year-round trip like Hawai'i and Mexico/Central America. (There are rumors of Pacific Rim and round-the-world cruises starting in Seattle Any Year Now...)

Right now the consensus is that a 15 day cruise is at least 3 days too long, maybe 5. (How long a vacation is too long? When you get tired of fine dining and having someone else do your housekeeping...)

Maybe if the consecutive days at sea were fewer, and there were more port calls, we would not have felt this way. I don't know. Maybe we need to look into that 19 day L.A. to Ft. Lauderdale cruise, with Panama Canal transit and a stop in Mexico, Central America, and various Caribbean Islands to say for sure.

Anyway, I'll be posting some pics and videos here, although many of the videos need editing.

Here's a taste:

This is a somewhat crappy cell phone video taken on March 17th off Lahaina, Maui, of a humpback whale doing "pedunkle slaps."

Briefly made us wonder why we paid money for a separate whale watching cruise, if I could watch one from the buffet line...

(It was totally worth it, BTW.)

Tab Clearance

I'm so glad Tamara introduced me to this idea.  Sometimes I have so many noteworthy articles, but nothing to say.  Wait....

• Faster, please: Instapundit » Blog Archive » PERSONALIZING CANCER DRUGS: “Starting this spring, for about $5,000, any oncologist will be able to ship a sliver of tumor in a bar-coded package to Foundation’s lab. Foundation will extract the DNA, sequence scores of cancer genes, and prepare a report to steer doctors and patients toward drugs…  I imagine this will have payoffs treating other conditions, as well.
• Again, faster please: Human Achievement of the Day | Daily Pundit: Heart Gel Repairs Damage.
• The Associated Press: Lava flow destroys Hawaii neighborhood's last home. Not sure if this is the house I blogged about after our 2010 trip to The Big Island. ("I don't know...")
• Heh:  Instapundit » Blog Archive » HEY, LOOK: Senate Democrats Who Took Campaign Contributions from Koch Industries. Including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden.…  
• Goes beyond hubris:  Michelle Malkin » Obama Invites Self to Deliver Commencement Address at Women’s College  Women's college, had a woman scheduled to give commencement speech, then white House calls and says "Nice college you have there, be a shame..."
• Ethicists? What kind of Ethicist argues for “after-birth abortion”? | Daily Pundit.  Seriously?  A call for sanctioning infanticide?  Of course, that's a form of eugenics, which gave rise to Planned Parenthood...
• Two links on the same story, really neat on several counts:
• Faces of 2 USS Monitor crewmembers reconstructed - Boston.com
• Faces of Civil War sailors from sunken USS Monitor reconstructed in hopes of identifying them - The Washington Post
  

Tyranny in paradise...

CNET News says Hawaii may keep track of all Web sites visited:

The state legislature plans hearing on bill requiring Internet service providers to create dossiers on residents showing all Web sites they visit for two years.

I'm trying to figure out what the purpose is.

There's a link on that article to a follow-up, saying the sponsor is having second thoughts. Good. But WTF is up with these jackasses and their overly broad legislation?

Tsunami Preparedness story--Hawaii

Here.  I'm guessing he is/was in or near the Kona district on the Big Island, since that was the area most affected.

From here.

Scenes of Devastation

Courtesy one of the regulars at Shooters Northwest, here is an ABC News web page with before and after photos of the earthquake/tsunami disaster area in Japan. When the page loads, it is "before"; roll your mouse over the photo for the "after."

Meanwhile... I was under the impression that damage in Hawaii was minor. Then I saw this headline: State estimates tsunami damage at $3 million or more - Hawaii News.  While it certainly pales compared to Japan, Kailua-Kona on The Big Island got hammered...
Updated: Kailua Kona Tsunami, the Kailua Kona Pier, the King Kamehameha Hotel, and more (Those first two photos are about where we were standing while watching last year's Independence Day parade...)
2011 Kailua-Kona Tsunami | The Kona Blog
First look at King Kamehameha hotel damage | Hawaii247.com | Hawaii 24/7
Hilo Living Blog: Tsunami in Kona

Photos from Kealakekua Bay and Napoopoo | Hawaii247.com | Hawaii 24/7
RAW VIDEO: Kona tsunami – House washes away, floats in bay | Big Island Video News
Japan tsunami surge wreaks havoc in Kailua-Kona | Hawaii247.com | Hawaii 24/7

Friday, which comes on Saturday this week...

I've been posting the weekly Big Island Travelogue on Friday.  Except this week it's on Saturday.  Well, it's Friday somewhere.. (Hey, it works for Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffet...)  Today, I think, mostly flowers.  All I know about them is "Gee, that's pretty... I think."  So all I have to do is choose and upload. And chase cats off the keyboard.

This one was taken on our 2008 trip. I have no idea what it is...

Another from 2008.

Not a flower, but who could resist a neat tree like this?
Also from 2008.

Speaking of neat trees, this one I'm sitting on fell down, 

but was "caught" by another, and not uprooted...

And it continues to grow, as you can see at the left side of this photo.

Hey, it was Hawai'i, gotta have the palm tree and waves pic...

Orchid, I think.

Le'hua blossom, of the O'heeo tree.
Outside Volcanoes National Park Visitor's center

Hawai'ian Christmas tree?  Flora makes a comeback in the lava field.

Heliconia blossom.

We took a culinary home tour.
This lotus had just bloomed.

From the same house.  Amazing place.
I won't post photos of the interior, out of respect for their privacy,
but it had Mrs. Drang and I hyperventilating.

We were grateful we had completed our remodels before seeing it...

Your Weekly Travelogue for Friday the 13th

Been a week, better post some Big Island pix...  (All are clickenbiggen.)

The summit of Mauna Kea as seen from Volcanoes National Park visitor's center.  They tell us it's pretty rare for the vog to clear to the point you can see it this clearly.  Note that you can see the various observatories up there pretty well. 

Mauna Kea is Hawai'ian for "White Mountain"; it does, indeed, snow in Hawai'i, and it is, indeed, possible to go snow skiing there. Not a skier myself, so it no significance to me at all, but apparently they get a particular form of powder that's called "pineapple."

This painting of Pele is in the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park Visitor's Center.

As is this sample of her hair...











...and her tears.










Back in 2008, on our first trip, we took a sunset stargazing tour up to the summit of Mauna Kea.  I was surprised that was allowed, I didn't think it was open.  Well, when the sun goes down they chase you off the summit, but you can go up there.  (Most rental car contracts on the island prohibit travel over Saddle Road, which is pretty rough.  It also goes through an Army impact area...)

A roadside shrine where we stopped on the way up.  Good chance to ditch the cheap shell leas from the luau the night before.

Aside from the quick lesson on Native Spirituality and culture, it was an opportunity to (surreptitiously) let us acclimate to the altitude--we were at over 6000' at this point.

Most of the tour group was Japanese--the guide spoke the language fluently--so I don't know how much they appreciated the whole "Native Spirituality" thing.  I know they didn't seem impressed by the fact that I (claimed to) speak Korean...

Did I mention that it gets cold enough to snow up there?  The parkas (and hats and gloves, not worn yet) are supplied by the tour company.  (After all, who packs for Alaska when they go to Hawai'i in September?)

Don't ask me which observatory was which, I haven't a clue.  It was cold.  And the air is pretty thin up at 13,000 feet!

The actual summit of Mauna Kea.  It was too late, too dark, and too cold to actually go over there.  I was also remembering a little episode of Mountain Sickness about 25 years before...

"Okay, sun's down, let's go..."

Seriously, you have something like 20 minutes to Get off my mountain! after the sun goes down.   (This is to get any and all extraneous light away from the telescopes.)  Most of the groups then retreat to the visitor's center and set up telescopes, and give a talk about the Solar System and astronomy.  (A computer-controlled telescope makes that very easy; you punch in the command to "Find Saturn" and the next thing you know, you're amazing the tourists with a view of Saturn's Rings!)

Richard, our guide, related a very odd thing to us--the Japanese tourists (his specialty) almost never know that we are in the Milky Way galaxy.  Not even in Japanese.  Seems odd: Wouldn't they have a name for it in Japanese?

Another Crummy Day In Paradise...

Thinking about Gun Blogger Rendezvous this morning--what guns should I take?--I remembered that Sebastien and Bitter are going to Hawai'i instead.  (From what I can glean of their itinerary, they could stop in Reno on the way home and do both, but that's probably not feasible), which reminded me that it has been over a week since I tantalized anyone with photos from Our Summer Vacation.

On Monday we visited the Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm.   They raise seahorses for the aquarium market, this preserving the wild population.  Interesting, but I could have done without the political subtext in the tour, and I question the science behind some of what was being spouted.  I'll talk about that in a separate post, if at all.

Here, Mrs. Drang makes friends with a sea horse.

On Tuesday we took a Historical Sunset Dinner Cruise, on a Body Glove catamaran.  They do dive and snorkeling excursions during the day, and the occasional sunset dinner cruise.  This one went south down the Kona Coast to Kealakekua Bay, stopping occasionally on the way to see the historical and cultural sights.

We saw some Spinner Dolphins on the way; these  are supposedly the only breed of dolphins that will do the jumping and flipping "thing" with out being trained.


I also saw a Flying Fish, but didn't have a chance to get a picture of it.   (Obviously, it was conspiring with all those sea turtles everyone else sees.)

(On the other hand, no one else saw the flying fish...)

The Captain Cook Memorial at Kealakekua Bay marks the spot where he was killed.   This is actually Crown Land, ceded to the United Kingdom years ago; every year one of Her majesty's ships anchors in the bay to maintain the grounds.

And as the sun sets on yet another crummy day in paradise...

"I don't know..."

Here are some of the pictures I promised in my previous post, "Nice Timing".

 Kilauea crater from the parking lot of the Jaggar Museum, Volcanoes National Park.

(Firefox knows that Kilauea is a word!)

(Current Volcanic Activity.)

(Closures, Advisories.)

This is the crater of Kilauea Iki, or Son of Kilauea.

There is a trail down to this crater, they tell us that it is pretty warm down there, but you can see people walking around.

Looking past the dome at the "entrance" to Kilauea Iki, you can see the steam rising from Kilauea.

An old (50+ years) lava field; eventually, life returns. If given a chance.

 On our last visit to the island--which I realize now I didn't blog about nearly enough--we took an aerial tour, on Island Hoppers.  Got a few good pics.  If you click-to-enlarge, you should be able to see some lave flowing through this vent...

Click-to-enlarge this one, and you will see, just left of center towards the top, the roofs of a house and a car of someone who got out just in time. Legally, this property (and all similar private property) still belongs to the owners; they just can't figure out what to do with it...

We were told of one guy who's home was isolated by lava, but is still livable; apparently, he makes money renting it out to film crews...

30 years ago this was a famous "black sand" beach, complete with picturesque palm trees. Then the volcano erupted, and flowed into the sea, filling up the bay. Amazingly, the village right off the beach survives. They eke out a living; a little cafe, a little bar, selling trinkets and artwork to tourists...

The white pineapple was incredible.

Back then, if I had been standing where I was when I took this photo, I would have drowned in about 200 feet of water...

The custom has arisen for visitors to plant a coconut palm to try and hurry the development of another beach.

After dinner we got back in the van and drove to the observation area; access is restricted to between 5 and 8 PM; you can stay later, but you have to enter before 8. (We were a tad late, they let us in anyway.)
More trinket sellers, more artists.

Lava flow after dark. Not sure, we may have been UPDATE:  We were pretty darned near the area that was referred to in the previous post.

Photographing these is hard, telephoto lenses notwithstanding. In fact, the telephoto emphasizes any movement, so the tradeoff might not be worth it. On the other hand, with a digital camera, as long as you have batteries and SD card space, why not? (As Matt Helm used to say about old fashioned film, "They make miles of the stuff, why shouldn't I shoot extra and throw the bad shots out?")

Eventually, one of us found a gate post, at the driveway to a house (A house! Yes, people still live in the area!) and we were able to use that for a little added stability.  I suggested to our guide that someone could probably pick up some cash renting tripods; for that matter, you could probably rent out an entire "Lava Photography Kit", and let folks keep the SD Card when they are done.





Last trip, one of the first things we did was a "Circum-Island" bus tour, which was neat in that it gave us a few minutes at a bunch of different attractions, and let us figure out what we wanted to spend time at, but lasted 13 hours, and was exhausting.  Had no intention of doing ti again, but this sounded cool, and we missed the part of the description where it said it was a 13+ hour circum-island tour...

Anyway.  Nui-Pohaku Adventure Tours.  They do bike, and bike-'n'-hike tours, too, and if you forget your jacket on the van, they'll mail it back to you for free...

***

For the Jimmy Buffet impaired, the title is a reference to his song "Volcano":

Now I don't know
I don't know
I don't know where I'm a gonna go
When the volcano blow

Nice Timing

Hawai'i Magazine (online) reports:

Hawaii’s still very active Kilauea volcano sends lava flow into Kalapana

by:Derek Paiva
posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 at 01:01 PM

Current Kilauea lava flow covers portion of Highway 130 in Kalapana this week. Photo: USGS

HAWAII Magazine reader Beth Kowalski e-mailed us with a question about our lack of coverage of Kilauea Volcano activity in recent months:

Has activity at Kilauea volcano not been newsworthy lately? Your website used to write often in 2008 and 2009 about lava activity at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. But the last story I found about it at HawaiiMagazine.com was last October. I can read about Kilauea’s eruptions at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory’s website. But I liked how your website broke down the scientific news about the eruption into easy-to-understand articles and language. I know the volcano is still active, so what’s up?

Funny you should write us this week, Beth.

After several months of quiet, business-as-usual activity at the Big Island volcano, lava flows from Kilauea’s east rift zone Puu Oo vent this week came within a 100 or so yards of several homes in the Kalapana area for the first time in many years. Parts of the flow also covered sections of Highway 130 and 137, which once led to coastal viewing sites for Puu Oo lava entering the ocean.

Kalapana, you may remember, was the small Puna district town virtually destroyed by lava flows from Puu Oo vent between April 1990 and February 1991. Over 10 months, the devastating flows slowly moved through the heart of the town, taking with it homes, longtime businesses and invaluable archaeological sites. Gone forever when the flow finally came to a stop were the natural fresh water spring and swimming hole Queen’s Bath, Kaimu Bay and Black Sand Beach and much of the area's picturesque coastline.

According to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory’s website this morning, the current lava flow affecting Kalapana was still advancing, albeit very slowly, over Highway 137, but had not yet destroyed any homes.

From the Volcano Observatory:

Activity Summary for past 24 hours: Kilauea eruptive activity continued at two locations. The summit eruptive vent within Halema`uma`u Crater hosted a crusted and circulating lava pond that produced red glow visible from the Jaggar Museum overnight. In the east rift zone, lava flowed from the TEB vent through tubes to supply active surface flows that have slowed their advance along highway 137. Sulfur dioxide emission rates from the summit and east rift zone vents remained elevated.

Sulfur Dioxide is a major component of The Big Island's (in)famous "VOG", or "Volcanic Smog." When SO₂ levels get high enough, they start actively discouraging folks with breathing difficulty from travelling in the volcano area. (This is one case where "Feel the burn" has nothing to do with the results of a vigorous workout...)

We took a "Volcano and Lava Expedition" while visiting the Big Island two weeks ago--took the tour two weeks ago today, in fact--and I'll try and post some of our photos from it later.

Sleepin' Swimmin' wit da fishes

Been reviewing the video I shot snorkeling in Paradise. It would probably have been a good idea to make time to try the Kodak Playsport ZX3 out in controlled conditions, or maybe the snorkeling equivalent of a "bunny slope", to get the hang of things. Here is one of the first pieces I shot that was savable:

A lot of it turned out that way; too short, kind of jerky, trying to shoot subjects too far away to get any detail. There is a tendency for the camcorder--or the person holding it--to bob around in the current, which accounts for much of the unsteadiness.  Plus, as Dirtcrashr points out, zooming in and out underwater doesn't work well for a variety of reasons.

I was thinking that the audio would turn off when I switched to "underwater" mode, but it did not.  Most of the noise is what you hear underwater anyway--those sea critters are loud!  Some of it is me breathing.  (The boat motors--Yamaha 150s--were amazingly quiet.)

So far, all the video I have reviewed was shot in, off Honaunau, or, to be more precise, Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau, "The City of Refuge."  This is a lovely spot, a National Park, which was a designated sanctuary to which people who had violated kapu ("tabu", "taboo") could flee to avoid the penalty, which was death. Losers in battle could also avoid death here.  Theoretically, having survived to arrive at the City of Refuge, one could be purified by a priest, and leave safely.  The only way to get there, or to leave, was by water.

Out of the two dozen+ videos I have reviewed thus far--discarding over half a dozen outright--these are the best two I took:

 These colorful guys are Threadfin butterflyfish, Hawai'ian name Kikakapu,and easily the most colorful (and easy to viedo/photograph) fish I've seen while snorkeling.  (Which isn't saying much, as I've been snorkeling twice now...)

I still have at least another two dozen videos to go through, so I will definitely be posting more.  Like I said, maybe this will help me get over not being there anymore...

"Heh"

Is this what an Instalanche feels like? 

So, just to fill in any blanks I may have left*, the dive mask-with-digital-camera/camcorder Mrs. Drang is brand named Liquid Image, Explorer Series 5.1 megapixel.  This particular model is rated to fifteen feet, and only comes in "mid-size"; I had trouble with the prescription mask the guide service (Sea Quest, highly recommended)  gave me, as I chose one too small.  (I was focused on the optical prescription...)

The lights we got are not the light shown on the website; similar, but not the same.  Take AAAs, not CR123s, for one thing.

I'll review and post more video after I get home from the Salt Mines this afternoon.  Right now I have to convince the cats--redeemed from Kitty Jail yesterday--that Dad has to go earn the money for noms...

***
*Here, here, or in the email reproduced at Instapundit linked above.

Home again, home again...

s*i*g*h

Some say it's a sign of a successful vacation when you're eager to go back to work.

Some would say, therefore, that this was an unsuccessful vacation.

I guess I'll assuage my distress at going back to work by continuing to post about Our Hawaiian Vacation until we get to go back.

Swimmin' with the turtles...

Not as New Age as swimming with dolphins, but much, much better than sleepin' {fixt--DWD} wit' da fishes...

Not bad, for being the first video she made with the mask, especially since she thought she was taking still shots at the time.  (Press the button once for stills, twice for video.  Sounds simple enough, but the difference between messing around with it in the living room and while actually swimming for the first time with it is pronounced enough.)

I took a lot of video with the Kodak Playsport Zx3, too, enough that I need to go through it to see what I've got and what will get posted.  (Saved in ".mov" format, I need to download a player first...)

This always happens

Whenever we go snorkeling--twice now--Mrs. Drang gets to swim with Great A'Tuin, but I don't even know about it until later...

And Lesser A'Tuin as well...

She shot some video footage with her fancy digital camcorder-in-a-dive-mask, which I will try to post later.