Life on a Really Big Volcano Surrounded by Ocean
Trip Start
Jan 13, 2009
1
14
Trip End
Ongoing
Hilo,
Hawaii,
United States
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Our Studio
View from our studio
Downtown Hilo
The Forest Service Office
The weather has been both good and surprisingly not-so-good. When the sun is out it is perfect--warm, but not too warm, humid, but not too humid. That has been about a third of the time. The rest of the time it has been unseasonably chilly (by local standards), which while it doesn't sound cold (lows of 57 degrees break records) without any heat in the buildings it is not exactly a paradise-level of comfort. Melanie had come prepared for, ya know, Hawaii weather, so she occasionally borrows Dan's overabundant long-sleeve layers. So to warm up we have been driving over to the other side of the island on the weekends, not very far distance wise, but might as well be 100s of miles away. There it is 80 degrees and sunny almost everyday (though often voggy--volcanic fumes creating haze--everything has a trade-off...). Even though we've been driving to play, we like living in Hilo.
Volcano National Park is basically in our backyard, truly unlike anything we'd ever seen before. If someone plunked us down in some parts of the park and told us to guess where we were, Mordor would be a reasonable guess. Highlights so far have been hiking through Kilauea Iki crater (only 50 years ago it was a boiling lake of lava, and is still not completely cooled inside!) and seeing lava flow into the ocean at sunset, both with Mathias and Louisa, friends from Corvallis.
Mathias, Louisa, Melanie and Dan, Volcano NP
Kilauea Iki "lava lake"
Lava flowing into the ocean
Another great moment was driving to the main crater one night on our way back to Hilo and seeing the crater glow red. It was bitterly cold, rainy and windy, but the crater looked peaceful and warm. It was the first time it hit home that the crater was a portal to the center of the Earth--during the day it is an active steam (and sometimes ash) vent, but there is no perspective of depth until you see it glowing from within at night. There are numerous interesting trails through forest and lava fields, and the coast line at the end of the road (dramatically shortened a few years back by a giant lava flow) is spectacular.
Sea Arch on Volcano NP coast
Several times we have been snorkeling with dozens and dozens of colorful tropical fish. While we've done so before in several places, what makes this so cool is that we occasionally look at each other and say "We live here?!" The water is actually a bit chilly at times, so we take it in smallish doses and warm up under the tropical sun while watching the whales playing offshore.
The big island is largely made up by two of the largest mountains in the world; the summits of both are fairly accessible. The drive to Mauna Loa is truly unique--you go through miles and miles of lava fields; all different shapes, colors and textures of lava. Who knew lava had so much variety? This is really a place where rocks look less like rocks in the familiar sense and more like solidified liquid.
Crazy lava formations
We went up with Mathias and Louisa to visit the weather observatory, a series of research facilities where abundant data are taken on atmospheric conditions. Because of its location, Hawaii has some of the cleanest air in the world, so measurements taken here are important in determining global trends in air quality.
Mauna Loa Weather Observatory
Mauna Kea is where all the telescopes are, and the sky is incredibly clear and full of stars; more stars than we ever imagined. Familiar constellations are actually difficult to find since they are drowned out by thousands and thousands of usually not-so-visible other stars. Just below the summit there are telescopes the public can look through, which is how we saw a nebulae in Orion's sword--it was awesome. It was also freezing (literally) with a 20 mile an hour wind, so we couldn't stay more than a couple of hours. We're going to go back as soon as the system of high clouds leaves our area to see a comet that is currently visible. It is about a 40 minute drive to get to the telescopes from here; nothing is really very far on the island. How are we seeing all this? Well, we bought a quirky old Nissan Pathfinder here in Hilo. It runs pretty well (after some not-so-minor repairs), but let's see... the vents only work on full blast, the rear hatch must be propped open with a crutch, the overhead light just decides to come on mysteriously, the power locks sometime work and sometimes don't, the right rear window falls down and you have to push back up into place occasionally, the fuel gauge only works as a vague indication of fuel level, and the interior came with a mysterious smell that changes in intensity for no apparent reason, etc. etc. However, it was a very affordable running 4x4 (which you pretty much need to explore this island) and we're happy with it.
Dan with our new car
We actually had tickets to fly to Indonesia today, but due to paperwork issues that trip has been delayed until May. So the next POA is to leave for Yap aboard a military C-130 in three weeks, be there for about 5 days after visiting the Marshall Islands and Guam (briefly), then make our way to Australia to explore Tasmania with John, Melissa and Sam. After Tasmania all 5 of us are going to Perth to visit Joe and Billi and help Joe with field work. We are very excited to have a Corvallis reunion half way around the world in Australia! After that we'll head North to Indonesia for three months of field work among orang-utans, tigers and other kitties, elephants, crocodiles, monkeys, fancy birds, rhinos, and some of the largest trees in the world.
