Kilauea Volcano aerial video

Halemaumau Overlook Vent time-lapse movie.

This photograph shows the east rim of Pu‘u ‘O‘o crater. A collapsed spatter cone revealed a swiftly flowing stream of lava heading northeast, into the tube system that supplies the active flow field. The active flows today were 6 km (3.7 miles) southeast of Pu‘u ‘O‘o. Photo courtesy of USGS/HVO

(Activity updates are written by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.)

At the front of the active flow field, several narrow streams of lava were active, reflecting a relatively high level of activity Wednesday (Feb 8). Photo courtesy of USGS/HVO

A lava lake present within the Halema`uma`u Overlook vent during the past week resulted in night-time glow that was visible from the Jaggar Museum overlook. The lake, which is normally about 100–125 m (330–410 ft) below the floor of Halema`uma`u Crater and is visible by HVO’s Webcam, rose and fell slightly during the week in response to a series of large deflation-inflation cycles. On February 2 and 3, two large collapses of the vent crater wall triggered small explosions that threw spatter onto the rim of Halema`uma`u Crater.

On Kilauea’s east rift zone, surface lava flows were active in the upper part of the flow field, about 4.5–6 km (3–4 miles) southeast of Pu`u `O`o, over the past week. On Wednesday, February 8, these flows were 300 m (330 yards) from the northern boundary of the Royal Gardens subdivision. There are no active flows on the coastal plain, and there is no active ocean entry.

One earthquake beneath Hawai`i Island was reported felt this past week. A magnitude-2.7 earthquake occurred at 11:07 p.m., HST, on Wednesday, February 8, 2012, and was located 9 km (6 mi) southeast of Mauna Kea’s summit at a depth of 19 km (12 mi).

Visit the HVO Web site (hvo.wr.usgs.gov) for detailed Kilauea and Mauna Loa activity updates, recent volcano photos, recent earthquakes, and more; call (808) 967-8862 for a Kilauea summary; email questions to askHVO@usgs.gov

Map showing the extent of lava flows erupted during Kīlauea’s ongoing east rift zone eruption and labeled with the years in which they were active. Episodes 1–48b (1983–1986) are shown in dark gray; Episodes 48c–49 (1986–1992) are pale yellow; Episodes 50–53 and 55 (1992–2007) are tan; Episode 54 (1997) is yellow; Episode 58 (2007–2011) is pale orange; the episode 59 Kamoamoa eruption (March 2011) is at left in light reddish orange; and the episode 60 Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō overflows and flank breakout (Mar–August 2011) is orange. The currently active flow (episode 61) is shown as the two shades of red—pink is the extent of the flow from September 21, 2011, to January 26, 2012, and bright red marks flow expansion from January 26 to February 8. The active lava tube is delineated by the yellow line within the active flow field. The contour interval on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō is 5 m. (Click on image above for larger view)

Hawai`i Island 4th grade student Jyron Young was awarded the Grand Prize in HVO’s centennial poster contest for his stunning artwork depicting 100 years of volcano watching (top center). USGS photo.

(Volcano Watch is a weekly article written by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.)

The U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory recently honored Hawai`i Island students who created winning posters celebrating the observatory’s 100th anniversary. The award ceremony was held during HVO’s centennial open house on January 21, 2012.

HVO, which has continuously monitored Hawaiian eruptions and earthquakes since the observatory was founded in 1912, hosted the poster contest to commemorate its centennial milestone. Because volcanic processes and scientific observation are included in Hawai`i’s 4th grade science curriculum, we targeted that grade level for the contest.

In an announcement last fall, Hawai`i Island 4th grade students were invited to create posters conveying a message about HVO’s work in monitoring Hawaiian volcanoes. Within some set guidelines, students were free to focus on the historical, scientific or cultural aspects of volcano watching—or all three—as they designed and created their posters.

We had no idea whether, or how many, students would participate in HVO’s contest, but the response far exceeded our expectations: 217 posters were submitted by students from 16 different schools around the Island.

A panel of five judges—a scientist, an educator, a retired art center director, a radio host, and a marketing manager—selected first, second, and third place winners from each of the three Hawai`i Department of Education (DOE) Complex Areas and one overall Grand Prize winner. Choosing the 10 best of 217 amazing posters was not an easy task, but through careful and thoughtful consideration of each poster, the judges eventually identified the winners.

Jyron Young, who was a student at Waiakeawaena Elementary School when he created his stunning poster, is the Grand Prize winner. While at Waiakeawaena, his teachers were Susan Lee and Ada Kubo.

The Ka`u–Kea`au–Pahoa DOE Complex Area honorees include two students from Malamalama Waldorf School: first place winner Elijah Lacks-Park and second place winner Yasmine Butterfield, both of whom are taught by Lynn Pena. Third place winner Caitlyn Long attends Na`alehu Elementary School, and her teacher is Hettie Rush.

In the Hilo–Laupahoehoe–Waiakea DOE Complex Area, the first place winner is Bryce Camacho, a Chiefess Kapiolani Elementary School student in Kim Springer’s class. Second place winner Meghan Veincent attends Keaukaha Elementary School and created her poster under the guidance of Kumu Lurline Agbayani. The third place honoree is Julianne Lee, a Waiakeawaena Elementary School student taught by Susan Lee (no relation).

The Honoka`a–Kealakehe–Kohala–Konawaena DOE Complex Area first place winner is Ava Hunter, a Waikoloa Elementary School student in Jenna Nakao’s class. The other two honorees are Honoka`a Elementary School students: second place winner Kaddison Quiocho and third place winner Jannabel Bielza. Their teacher is Cindy Sharp.

Prizes awarded to these students were selected to reflect the work of HVO—observing and documenting volcanic and earthquake activity in Hawai`i. The awards included a digital camera (grand prize), binoculars (first place), a geologic hand lens (second place), and a mini-LED microscope (third place). Each winner also received a copy of “Volcano Watching,” written by a former HVO Scientist-in-Charge, the late Bob Decker, and his wife, Barbara. All awards were donated by current and former HVO staff.

Six posters also received honorable mentions based on their artistic or thematic merit. Ribbons will be awarded to students who created these posters: Giselle Valdovinos, Holualoa Elementary; Chloe Hughes, St. Joseph Elementary; Halia Buchal, Parker Elementary; Zoey Block, Malamalama Waldorf; Keala Pule, Ka `Umeke Ka`eo; and Lexus Balinbin, Pahoa Elementary.

In addition to the individual student awards, all teachers who took part in the contest will receive a set of USGS educational materials for the benefit of every student in their classrooms.

All posters were displayed at KTA Superstores in Hilo, Kamuela, and Kailua until February 10. The 10 winning and 6 honorable mention posters can still be viewed on HVO’s website hvo.wr.usgs.gov

HVO thanks the 217 students and their teachers for participating in the contest, the judges who selected the winners, and KTA Superstores for displaying the students’ work. We also thank the public libraries in Hilo, Honoka`a, North Kohala, Kailua-Kona, Kealakekua, Na`alehu, and Pahoa for serving as drop-off points for poster submissions.

Congratulations to HVO’s centennial poster contest winners! Job well done!

MEDIA RELEASE

Super-Earth Detected in Habitable Zone of Nearby Star

The newly discovered planet is depicted in this artist's conception, showing the host star as part of a triple-star system. The diagram below shows the orbits of the detected planets around the host star in relation to the habitable zone. Images courtesy of Guillem Anglada-Escudé, Carnegie Institution.

Santa Cruz, CA—An international team of scientists has discovered a potentially habitable super-Earth orbiting a nearby star. With an orbital period of about 28 days and a minimum mass 4.5 times that of the Earth, the planet orbits within the star’s “habitable zone,” where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on the planet’s surface. The researchers found evidence of at least one and possibly two or three additional planets orbiting the star, which is about 22 light years from Earth.

The researchers used public data from the European Southern Observatory and analyzed it with a novel data-analysis method. They also incorporated new measurements from the W. M. Keck Observatory’s High Resolution Echelle Spectrograph (HiRES) and the new Carnegie Planet Finder Spectrograph at the Magellan II Telescope. Their planet-finding technique involved measuring the small wobbles in a star’s motion caused by the gravitational tug of a planet.

The GJ 667C triple system as seen from a telescope. Credit: Guillem Anglada-Escudé

The team includes UC Santa Cruz astronomers Steven Vogt and Eugenio Rivera and was led by Guillem Anglada-Escudé and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution for Science. Their work will be published by Astrophysical Journal Letters, and the manuscript will be posted online at arxiv.org/archive/astr…

The host star is a member of a triple-star system and has a different makeup than our sun, with a much lower abundance of elements heavier than helium, such as iron, carbon, and silicon. This discovery indicates that potentially habitable planets can occur in a greater variety of environments than previously believed.

Sky location of the GJ 667 system in the constelation of Scorpius. The system is a bit too faint to be seen by eye. Credit: Guillem Anglada-Escudé

The host star, called GJ 667C, is an M-class dwarf star. The other two stars in the triple-star system (GJ 667AB) are a pair of orange K dwarfs, with a concentration of heavy elements only 25 percent that of our sun’s. Such elements are the building blocks of terrestrial planets, so it was thought to be less likely for metal-depleted star systems to have an abundance of low-mass planets.

“This was expected to be a rather unlikely star to host planets. Yet there they are, around a very nearby, metal-poor example of the most common type of star in our galaxy,” said Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz. “The detection of this planet, this nearby and this soon, implies that our galaxy must be teeming with billions of potentially habitable rocky planets.”

This diagram shows the orbits of the detected planets around the host star in relation to the habitable zone (HZ). Credit: Guillem Anglada-Escudé

GJ 667C had previously been observed to have a super-Earth (GJ 667Cb) with a period of 7.2 days, although this finding was never published. This planet orbits so close to the star that it would be too hot for liquid water. The new study started with the aim of obtaining the orbital parameters of this super-Earth.

But in addition to this first candidate, the research team found the clear signal of a new planet (GJ 667Cc) with an orbital period of 28.15 days and a minimum mass of 4.5 times that of Earth. The new planet receives 90 percent of the light that Earth receives. However, because most of its incoming light is in the infrared, a higher percentage of this incoming energy should be absorbed by the planet. When both these effects are taken into account, the planet is expected to absorb about the same amount of energy from its star that the Earth absorbs from the sun.

“This planet is the new best candidate to support liquid water and, perhaps, life as we know it,” Anglada-Escudé said.

The team found that the system might also contain a gas-giant planet and an additional super-Earth with an orbital period of 75 days. However, further observations are needed to confirm these two possibilities.

Artistic conception of GJ667C. Even though it is an artistic conception, the size of the star and the binary are on the right scale, color and brightness. Credit: Guillem Anglada-Escudé

“With the advent of a new generation of instruments, researchers will be able to survey many M dwarf stars for similar planets and eventually look for spectroscopic signatures of life in one of these worlds,” said Anglada-Escudé, who was with Carnegie when he conducted the research, but has since moved on to the University of Gottingen.

In addition to Anglada-Escudé, Butler, Vogt, and Rivera, the coauthors include Jeffrey Crane, Stephen Shectman, and Ian Thompson at Carnegie; Pamela Arriagada and Dante Minniti of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; Nader Haghighipour of the University of Hawaii-Monoa; Brad Carter of University of Southern Queensland; C. G. Tinney, Robert Wittenmyer, and Jeremy Bailey of the University of New South Wales; Simon J. O’Toole of the Australian Astronomical Observatory; Hugh Jones of the University of Hertfordshire; and James Jenkins of the Universidad de Chile, Camino El Observatorio.

MEDIA RELEASE

Dr. Dilafruz Williams

WAIMEA, Island of Hawaii—Hawaii Preparatory Academy will launch a series of monthly ‘Ohana Nights at the Energy Lab beginning Wednesday, February 8.

‘Ohana Night at the Energy Lab, which runs from 6 to 8 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month, provides hands-on learning opportunities for families in the areas of energy and water conservation, energy generation, water clarification, zero waste, food sovereignty, and green chemistry. The fee, which covers all materials, is $15 per family per evening or $50 for all four evenings in the series.

The first ‘Ohana Night will feature Dr. Dilafruz Williams, Stanford Fellow and professor at Portland State University, who will present Learning Gardens and Sustainability Education: How Parents and the Community Can Support Academic Achievement in the Garden. As part of the presentation, families will take home one pound of worm castings to use in their own gardens.

Williams has been studying the effects of ecologically-based education on academic achievement, social skills acquisition, and nutrition for more than 20 years. As a parent and former public school board member, she values education that builds relationships with nature and humans. She is the co-founder of Portland School District’s Sunnyside K-8 Environmental School and co-founder of Leadership in Sustainability Education, where she established a master’s level academic program, initiated and designed Learning Gardens at several schools addressing local farm-to-school food and nutrition issues and integration into major curricular goals for grades K-8.
Future ‘Ohana Night at the Energy Lab events will feature:

• Wednesday, March 14: Dr. Bill Wiecking, director of the Energy Lab at HPA, will present Solar Energy: Applying Energy Lab Technology at Home. Families will bring a list of home appliances to aid in calculations and will take home sketches of home systems.
• Wednesday, April 11: Angela Kang, Hawaii County Recycling Specialist, will present Zero-Waste Your Home and Office. Families will make an alkaline battery capture bucket or sew a reusable bag.
• Wednesday, May 9: Deacon “Dr. Beachcomb” Ritterbush, Ph.D., will present Connecting to Nature Through Beachcombing. Families will create beachcombing art.

For more information, please contact Koh Ming Wei at 808-881-4266 or mwkoh@hpa.edu.

Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent

(Activity updates are written by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.)

A lava lake present within the Halema‘uma‘u Overlook vent during the past week resulted in night-time glow that was visible from the Jaggar Museum overlook. The lake, which is normally about 100–125 m (330–410 ft) below the floor of Halema‘uma‘u Crater and visible by HVO’s Webcam, rose and fell slightly during the week in response to a series of large deflation-inflation cycles. It reached a relatively high level this past week, due to summit inflation, but was still 70 m (230 ft) below the crater floor.

On Kilauea’s east rift zone, surface lava flows were active in the upper part of the flow field, about 3.5–5 km (2–3 miles) southeast of Pu‘u ‘O‘o, over the past week. The flow field on the coastal plain remains inactive after activity stalled there over a month ago, and there is no active ocean entry. Occasional short lava flows and a small lava pond have been observed over the past week within Pu‘u ‘O‘o’s crater.

One earthquake beneath Hawai‘i Island was reported felt this past week. A magnitude-2.4 earthquake occurred at 9:18 a.m., HST, on Thursday, January 26, 2012, and was located 4 km (3 mi) northwest of Volcano at a depth of 31 km (19 mi).

Visit the HVO Web site (hvo.wr.usgs.gov) for detailed Kilauea and Mauna Loa activity updates, recent volcano photos, recent earthquakes, and more; call (808) 967-8862 for a Kilauea summary; email questions to askHVO@usgs.gov

Mobile version of slideshow here
Sequence of the rim collapse into Halemaumau’s vent.

Sharp-eyed Keck Observatory engineer Andrew Cooper noticed a bright glow towards Volcano from his vantage point on Mauna Kea, took a photo and surmised that part of Halemaumau’s vent has collapsed. Read his blog post here.

MEDIA RELEASE

(Volcano Watch is a weekly article written by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.)

“Wow!” “I didn’t know that!” “Cool!”

These were just a few of the comments said in response to the information shared during the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory’s open house on January 21, 2012.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologist Tim Orr (in red shirt) shows open house visitors one of the volcanic rocks on display at HVO'€™s centennial open house on January 21, 2012. USGS photo by Ben Gaddis.

Held in celebration of HVO’s 100th anniversary, the open house featured more than 40 exhibits about Hawai‘i’s volcanoes and how they are monitored. HVO staff and volunteers also conducted more than a dozen hands-on activities and demonstrations continually throughout the day-long event.

HVO is not ordinarily open to the public, so more than 1,400 Hawai‘i Island residents and visitors took advantage of the opportunity to visit the observatory and interact with the scientists responsible for tracking Hawaiian eruptions and earthquakes. Based on their comments, a good time was had by all.

Inside the observatory, people learned how and why earthquakes occur in Hawai‘i, smelled the distinctive odors of volcanic gases, and looked through microscopes for enhanced views of Pele’s hair and volcanic ash. They discovered how thermal cameras, which can “see” heat, help document lava flows and lava lakes, and heard how volcano-monitoring data from more than 100 field stations are collected and analyzed. They also saw examples of the actual instruments that monitor volcanic and seismic activity.

Outdoors, HVO scientists showed ash layers from Kilauea’s explosive eruptions and demonstrated the power of gases trapped within magma (subsurface molten rock). Scientists inflated and deflated a model volcano to illustrate how and why changes in the shapes of Hawai‘i’s active volcanoes are measured. People of all ages were invited to become “junior geologists” by wielding a rock hammer and using a geologic hand lens to examine volcanic rocks.

Winners of HVO’s centennial poster contest for Hawai‘i Island 4th grade students were honored in an award ceremony during the open house. The 10 winning posters are now posted on HVO’s website (hvo.wr.usgs.gov).

During the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory’s centennial open house, HVO Scientist-in-Charge Jim Kauahikaua points to data displays as he explains how Hawaiian volcanoes and earthquakes are monitored to some of the more than 1,400 people who attended the January 21 event. USGS photo by Ben Gaddis.

Copies of “The Story of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory—A Remarkable First 100 Years of Tracking Eruptions and Earthquakes,” a new USGS general information booklet published to commemorate HVO’s centennial, were distributed to open-house attendees. Folks could also pick up two new USGS Fact Sheets about earthquakes in Hawai‘i and Kilauea Volcano’s explosive eruptions.

If you missed the open house, links to all three publications—as well as the newly revised “Eruptions of Hawaiian Volcanoes” booklet and two new DVDs featuring selected images from Hawai‘i’s 2006 Kiholo Bay-Mahukona earthquakes and time-lapse movies of Kilauea’s 2004–2008 eruption—are posted on the HVO website.

On the day of HVO’s open house, Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, Kilauea Military Camp, Hawai‘i Pacific Parks Association, the USGS Ecosystems Kilauea Field Station, and the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes joined in our centennial celebration by offering guided walks and other activities. Volcano-inspired exhibits at Volcano Art Center, Lyman Museum, and East Hawai‘i Cultural Center added another facet to the day’s events.

HVO’s centennial open house took place during Volcano Awareness Month, an event held on Hawai‘i Island every January since 2010. This year, current and former HVO scientists offered 11 presentations about Hawaiian volcanoes and earthquakes and the history of the observatory. Programs at Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, Lyman Museum in Hilo, and Kealakehe High School in Kona were well received, with 40 to nearly 300 people attending each talk.

Although January has come to an end, we hope Island residents and visitors will continue their quests to become more aware of Hawai‘i’s active volcanoes. To that end, HVO scientists will continue to offer informative talks throughout 2012.

On February 8, HVO geologist Frank Trusdell will present the eruptive history and current status of Mauna Loa at the Pu`uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park amphitheater at 6:00 p.m. On February 27, HVO geologist Don Swanson will speak about Kilauea’s history of explosive eruptions at Hilo’s Lyman Museum at 7:00 p.m.

Additional programs will be announced as they are scheduled. Suggested topics for future presentations can be sent to askHVO@usgs.gov.

We sincerely thank everyone who participated in the Volcano Awareness Month events and HVO’s centennial open house. Your enthusiasm for learning more about Hawai‘i’s dynamic environment fuels our efforts to keep you informed.

MEDIA RELEASE

HONOLULU – A new website will allow internet users to determine their computer or electronic device’s internet speed and help the state map its broadband coverage as the Abercrombie Administration moves forward with its Hawai’i Broadband Initiative. Participants can take the test at hawaiispeedtest.net. The data collected will assist the state in identifying and closing gaps in service throughout Hawai’i.

“This is a unique opportunity in which citizens can directly help in an important state initiative,” said Governor Abercrombie. “Right now, current technology such as social media allows citizens to share their thoughts with us. As broadband and technology progresses, people will be able to further engage with the state and each other.”
Data collected in 2012 will provide the state’s broadband specialists an important baseline.

“Measuring broadband speeds is pretty tough, but if we can get enough tests coming in from the public over various times of the day and with various amounts of internet traffic, then we can make a good estimation to work from,” noted Broadband Program Specialist Sterling Yee.

To take the test, visit hawaiispeedtest.net, fill in your current location information, and click “Begin Test.”

Additional Information about the Hawai’i Broadband Initiative

On August 23, 2011, Governor Neil Abercrombie issued an Executive Memorandum on the Hawai’i Broadband Initiative and directed the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism to lead the effort. Read the memo here: hawaii.gov/gov/broadba…

The Hawai’i Broadband Initiative has four goals:

1. Ensure ubiquitous access to world-class gigabit-per-second broadband service at affordable prices throughout Hawai’i.
2. Increase the use of ultra-high-speed broadband services and applications for economic development, healthcare, education, public safety, governmental efficiency and civic engagement.
3. Reduce Hawai’i’s barriers to global participation and ensure equitable access for all our islands, including the most remote areas of the state.
4. Develop and implement a modern regulatory and permitting environment that supports and advances investment in broadband infrastructure and public services.

The Governor also outlined the vision, purpose and goals behind the Hawai’i Broadband Initiative. Click here to learn more: hawaii.gov/gov/broadba…

Also, Australia is launching its own National Broadband Network. Watch this short video to learn more on their effort:

Acquired January 28, 2012 by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 team.

Click on image for full size 3MB image

MEDIA RELEASE

Kilauea has experienced a long-term eruption since 1983, though scientists have actually been keeping an eye on the volcano for much longer. January 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, which stands watch over one of our planet’s most active volcanoes. Situated on the rim of Kilauea Caldera, this observatory is the oldest volcano monitoring station in the United States.

The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite observed the volcano on January 28, 2012. Shown here are two natural-color views: a close-up of the Kilauea Caldera and the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, and a wide-area view showing Mauna Ulu and Pu’u ’O’o. Within the Kilauea Caldera lies Halema’uma’u Crater. A small plume of water vapor emerges from this crater and blows toward the southwest.

The founding of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory is generally identified as January 17, 1912, when geologist Thomas A. Jaggar, Jr., took over the continuous observations of Kilauea. In the decade before Jaggar set up shop, nearly 200,000 people died from earthquakes and volcanoes. In the wake of a devastating eruption at Mount Pelée in 1902, the National Geographic Society sponsored a volcano-observing expedition, and Jaggar was one of the participants. He soon concluded that, rather than studying the damage caused by eruptions, scientists would do more good to identify the precursors. On a trip through Hawaii, he negotiated with local businessmen and secured financial support for an observatory. In 1911, he hired volcanologist Frank Perret to monitor the volcano, then took over observations in January 1912.

Jaggar immediately brought detailed documentation to the observatory, and soon expanded the activities beyond his own observations. The installation of seismometers provided evidence of the link between earthquakes and volcanism. In the 1950s, the observatory installed tiltmeters to help measure surface deformation caused by the movement of magma below the surface. Researchers at the observatory collected gas samples in 1912—some of the earliest high-temperature volcanic gas samples ever collected—and drilled into a lava lake in the 1980s to better understand how volcanic rocks crystallize.

In 2012, a century after its founding, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory hosts 25 scientists and support personnel, along with students and volunteers. It tracks the activity of Kilauea, Mauna Loa, and other volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands, as well as the associated earthquakes.

Reference: Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Accessed January 30, 2012. Kauahikaua, J., Poland, M. (2012). One hundred years of volcano monitoring in Hawaii.

A 'Blue Marble' image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA's most recently launched Earth-observing satellite - Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on January 4, 2012. The NPP satellite was renamed 'Suomi NPP' on January 24, 2012 to honor the late Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin. Click on image for full-size (9MB). Image by NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring

MEDIA RELEASE

NASA Renames Earth-Observing Mission in Honor of Satellite Pioneer

WASHINGTON — NASA has renamed its newest Earth-observing satellite in honor of the late Verner E. Suomi, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin who is recognized widely as “the father of satellite meteorology.” The announcement was made Jan. 24 at the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society in New Orleans.

NASA launched the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project, or NPP, on Oct. 28, 2011, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. NPP was renamed Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership, or Suomi NPP. The satellite is the first designed to collect critical data to improve short-term weather forecasts and increase understanding of long-term climate change.

“Verner Suomi’s many scientific and engineering contributions were fundamental to our current ability to learn about Earth’s weather and climate from space,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.” Suomi NPP not only will extend more than four decades of NASA satellite observations of our planet, it also will usher in a new era of climate change discovery and weather forecasting.”

The Suomi NPP mission is a bridge between NASA’s Earth Observing System satellites to the next-generation Joint Polar Satellite System, or JPSS, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) program. JPSS is the civilian component of the former National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), which was reorganized by the Obama Administration in 2010.

“The new name now accurately describes the mission,” said Michael Freilich, director of the Earth Science Division in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Suomi NPP will advance our scientific knowledge of Earth and improve the lives of Americans by enabling more accurate forecasts of weather, ocean conditions and the terrestrial biosphere. The mission is the product of a partnership between NASA, NOAA, the Department of Defense, the private sector and academic researchers.”

Verner Suomi pioneered remote sensing of Earth from satellites in polar orbits a few hundred miles above the surface with Explorer 7 in 1959, and geostationary orbits thousands of miles high with ATS-1 in 1966. He was best known for his invention of the “spin-scan” camera which enabled geostationary weather satellites to continuously image Earth, yielding the satellite pictures commonly used on television weather broadcasts. He also was involved in planning interplanetary spacecraft missions to Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Suomi spent nearly his entire career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where in 1965 he founded the university’s Space Science and Engineering Center with funding from NASA. The center is known for Earth-observing satellite research and development. In 1964, Suomi served as chief scientist of the U.S. Weather Bureau for one year. He received the National Medal of Science in 1977. He died in 1995 at the age of 79.

“It is fitting that such an important and innovative partnership pays tribute to a pioneer like Verner Suomi,” said Mary Kicza, assistant administrator for NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service. “Suomi NPP is an extremely important mission for NOAA. Its advanced instruments will improve our weather forecasts and understanding of the climate and pave the way for JPSS, our next generation of weather satellites.”

Suomi NPP currently is in its initial checkout phase before starting regular observations with all of its five instruments. Commissioning activities are expected to be completed by March. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the Suomi NPP mission for the Earth Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The JPSS program provides the satellite ground system and NOAA provides operational support.

For more information about Verner Suomi’s career, visit:

earthobservatory.nasa….

This movie filmed by the USGS/HVO crew shows vigorous spattering along the south margin of the Halemaumau lava lake. Lava, upwelling in the northern portion of the lake (out of view), slowly migrates to this southern margin where it sinks back into the conduit.

(Activity updates are written by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.)

View looking east at a small lava lake filling a depression on the eastern side of floor of Pu‘u ‘O‘o crater. The smooth surface of the lake is just above the center of the photo, and the source of the lava is a hole at the southern edge of the lake (to the right in this view). The heavily fuming area just beyond the lake to the left is the east wall vent, which was degassing loudly today and ejecting small gobs of lava. Photo courtesy of USGS/HVO

A lava lake present within the Halema`uma`u Overlook vent during the past week resulted in night-time glow that was visible from the Jaggar Museum overlook. The lake, which is normally about 100–125 m (330–410 ft) below the floor of Halema`uma`u Crater and visible by HVO’s Webcam, rose and fell slightly during the week in response to a series of large deflation-inflation cycles. It reached a relatively high level this past week, due to summit inflation, but was still 80 m (260 ft) below the crater floor.

On Kilauea’s east rift zone, surface lava flows were active in the upper part of the flow field, about 3.5 km (2.2 miles) southeast of Pu`u `O`o, over the past week. The flow field on the coastal plain remains inactive after activity stalled there a month ago, and there is no active ocean entry. Occasional short lava flows and a small lava pond have been observed over the past week within Pu`u `O`o crater.

Surface flows, visible here as the lighter-colored lava, were active about 4 km (2.5 miles) east-southeast of Pu‘u ‘O‘o, where a low rootless shield is being constructed. Photo courtesy of USGS/HVO

Two earthquakes beneath Hawai`i Island were reported felt this past week. A magnitude-4.7 earthquake occurred at 4:36 p.m. on Sunday, January 22, 2012, HST, and was located 8 km (5 mi) south of Pu`u `O`o Crater at a depth of 8 km (5 mi). A magnitude-2.0 earthquake occurred at 00:24 a.m. on Tuesday, January 24, and was located 1 km (1 mi) northwest of Pu`ulena Crater at a depth of 1 km (1 mi).
Visit the HVO Web site (hvo.wr.usgs.gov) for detailed Kilauea and Mauna Loa activity updates, recent volcano photos, recent earthquakes, and more; call (808) 967-8862 for a Kilauea summary; email questions to askHVO@usgs.gov

Map showing the extent of lava flows erupted during Kilauea's ongoing east rift zone eruption and labeled with the years in which they were active. Episodes 1–€“48b (1983–1986) is shown in dark gray; Episodes 48c–49 (1986–€“1992) is pale yellow; Episodes 50–€“53 and 55 (1992€–2007) is tan; Episode 54 (1997) is yellow; Episode 58 (2007–2011) is pale orange; the episode 59 Kamoamoa eruption (March 2011) is at left in light reddish orange; and the episode 60 Pu‘u ‘O‘o overflows and flank breakout (Mar–August 2011) is orange. The currently active flow (episode 61, or Peace Day flow) is shown as the two shades of red–€“pink is the extent of the flow from September 21, 2011, to January 12, 2012, and bright red marks flow expansion from January 12 to January 26. The active lava tube is delineated by the yellow line within the active flow field. The contour interval on Pu‘u ‘O‘o is 5 m

(Volcano Watch is a weekly article written by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.)

Volunteers Ben Gaddis (left) and Andrew Hara (right) holding a photo of Thomas Jaggar in his gas lab in 1916. Photo courtesy of USGS/HVO

More than 300 employees—scientists, technicians, and support staff—have worked at HVO over the past century, but the observatory could not have been as productive as it has been without the assistance of volunteers. From the expedition of Frank Perret and E.S. Shepherd in 1911 to the present day, volunteers have willingly and enthusiastically helped with many important experiments and observations at HVO.

During his 1911 expedition, Perret oversaw the construction of a wire cable suspended across Halema`uma`u Crater from which a sampling bucket and a thermal probe could be lowered. The experiment required the help of Lorrin A. Thurston, his wife, and his children to handle the cable and to relay communications from one side of the crater to the other. The Thurston family may have been HVO’s first volunteers.

In another notable experiment in 1917, Thomas Jaggar, founder of HVO, directed nine volunteers to maneuver a 200-foot long, half-inch diameter pipe into the lava lake and pull it back out two times. With each attempt, the pipe encountered increasing resistance until the pipe arched upward and would go no farther. Jaggar described the results as encountering an “impenetrable pudding” on the bottom of the lake at a depth of 50 feet.

Today, volunteers continue to provide valuable support to HVO operations. Each year, we are fortunate to have volunteer help from a number of U.S. and foreign students. After spending a few months working alongside HVO scientists, many have gone on to pursue advanced degrees and scientific careers.

But HVO volunteers are not limited to students. Nancy Ikeda, a math professor from Fullerton Community College, California, is currently here on her second stint as a volunteer in HVO’s library and photo archive. One result of her assistance is a published collection of photos documenting the effects of the 2006 Kiholo Bay earthquake.

HVO has also benefitted greatly from long-term volunteer efforts of Hawai‘i Island residents. One of the longest serving volunteers is Ben Gaddis, who first volunteered during the Mauna Ulu eruption in 1973 and continued through the Mauna Loa eruption in 1984 as much as his Hilo attorney practice would allow. In 2008, when Ben “mostly retired” as a Family Court Judge, he volunteered again for several HVO projects, involving digital preservation of old records and photos.

Ben and retired Judge Frances Wong of Honolulu teamed together to collect and scan Jaggar’s daily Record Books (1912 to 1955). He has also become quite a sleuth at finding historical images and is in the process of inventorying and annotating photographs of past volcanic activity archived at Bishop Museum, Hawaii State Archives, Lyman Museum, and the University of Hawai`i.

Another volunteer, the late Kent Warshauer, also known as the “Sugar Mill Spy,” collected old newspaper articles about Hawai`i earthquakes, eruptions, tsunamis, and other topics related to natural phenomena to augment HVO’s records. His legacy remains in the form of an entire shelf of binders filled with copies of these articles in the HVO library.

Volunteer Andrew Hara, a professional photographer from Hilo, provides invaluable assistance in HVO’s photo archive. His most recent accomplishment involved scanning and digitally cleaning many of the older prints that were part of an HVO Centennial exhibit at the East Hawai`i Cultural Center.

Marcie Frenz, a retired educator from Hilo, volunteers at HVO one to two days a week transferring data on earthquakes felt in Hawai`i from index cards to a digital database that now holds almost 10,000 records.

Volunteer work is not limited to data preservation. Long-time volunteers Frank Box of Volcano and Clyde Shiraki of Mountain View were instrumental in HVO’s recent seismic network upgrades during the last several years, which sometimes required working at remote locations on Kilauea and Mauna Loa.

We are profoundly grateful for the current and past volunteer contributions to HVO’s century of operations and research and hope that we can continue to attract residents and students to our many opportunities.

The final Volcano Awareness Month talk by HVO scientists in January will be a presentation about Kilauea’s volcanic gas emissions and vog at the Kilauea Visitor Center in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park on January 31. For more information, please visit HVO’s website at hvo.wr.usgs.gov

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Evidence of the last march of a 1790 Hawaiian warrior party can be found in fossilized footprints preserved in the hardened ash of the Ka‘€˜u Desert. Amberle Keith

January 2012 marks the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory’s 3rd annual Volcano Awareness Month and its 100 year anniversary.

In honor of Volcano Awareness Month, the Hawai‘i Volcanoes Institute presents “Footprints Trail to Mauna Iki,” a guided geological hike in the Ka‘u Desert. The event takes place in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park on Sunday, January 29 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon.

Join UH-Hilo Educational Specialist Darcy Bevens for a four-mile round trip hike to explore features from Footprints Trail to Mauna Iki.

“At the Footprints trailhead, we will examine textural details of an ‘a‘a lava flow,” said Bevens. “Once we descend to the sandy desert, we’ll view footprints fossilized in the muddy ash in 1790, plus discuss the accretionary lapilli found in ash layers nearby.”

“As we approach Mauna Iki, we will see a pahoehoe lava field with unusual secondary mineralization that results in beautiful surface patterns. From there, we’ll ascend Mauna Iki (little mountain) to explore a variety of volcanological features. If we’re lucky, we may come across beautiful Pele’s Hair, wafted downwind in the plume of Halema‘uma‘u Crater,” she added.

Darcy Bevens

Originally from O‘ahu, Darcy Bevens graduated with a B.A. from the University of Northern Colorado. She has worked as an Engineering Geologist in Alaska, a writer for Hawai‘i Natural History Association, and an Educational Specialist at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. For over two decades, Bevens has worked at UH-Hilo’s Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes doing both administration and field work.

The hike is rated moderate, with four miles of hiking along hardened lava trails and a 100’ elevation gain. Be prepared for the base 3,000’ elevation as well as for variable weather conditions, including sunny and windy. Hikers should be in good condition, able to do without shade all morning in a remote, rugged area.

This event is presented by the Hawai‘i Volcanoes Institute, a program of the Friends of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, a non-profit organization. Program cost is $35 for Friends members and $50 for non-members. Students (K-12 and college with valid student ID) are half-price. Non-members are welcome to join the Friends group in order to get the member discount. To register, call 985-7373 or visit www.fhvnp.org

Pea-sized accretionary lapilli erode from an ash deposit found in the Ka‘€˜u Desert. Several layers of ash illustrate the complexity of events associated with the 1790 pyroclastic density currents produced by an explosive eruption of Halemaumau. Photo by Amberle Keith

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Yellow Tangs. Hawaii 24/7 File Photo

Dr. Brian Tissot, noted marine ecologist at Washington State University and former UH-Hilo professor, will discuss studies conducted on the aquarium fishery in West Hawaii for the last 15 years. Tissot will be speaking Thursday (Jan 26) at 6:30 p.m. at Kealakehe High School Library.

The talk will focus on data that address controversial issues including collector impacts to the reef, fish mortality rates, and the effects of decompression and venting on yellow tangs. He will also address issues regarding the long-term sustainability of the trade.

Date:
Thursday, January 26th
6:30 pm-8:00 pm
Kealakehe High School Library, Kailua-Kona

For more information please call UH Sea Grant at 937-9800
Or email cechung@hawaii.edu

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A Keck Observatory astronomer who led the way to the discovery of a super-massive black hole at the center of our galaxy has been recognized with the 2012 Crafoord Prize in Astronomy, an award almost as prestigious for astronomers as a Nobel Prize.

“This is a big one. I’m thrilled,” said Andrea Ghez of the University of California at Los Angeles.

For more than 16 years, Ghez and her team have been pushing the frontiers of high-resolution imaging technologies with the twin 10-meter Keck telescopes in order to explore the center of the Milky Way.

Andrea Ghez

By tracking the rapid, small-scale orbits of stars at the Galactic Center, they discovered the presence of a source of tremendous gravity – the best evidence yet that a supermassive black hole exists there. The reality of such an object confronts and challenges our knowledge of fundamental physics.

Ghez, who holds UCLA’s Lauren B. Leichtman & Arthur E. Levine Chair in Astrophysics and heads UCLA’s Galactic Center Group, will be sharing the prize, and its 4 million Swedish Krona or $600,000 award, with Reinhard Genzel, scientific director of Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany.

Genzel leads a group that has long worked independently to track the same stars at the Galactic Center.

“This year´s Crafoord Prize Laureates have found the most reliable evidence to date that super-massive black holes really exist,” reads a Jan. 19 release from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. “For decades Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez, with their research teams, have tracked stars around the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Separately, they both arrived at the same conclusion: in our home galaxy resides a giant black hole, called Sagittarius A.”

Ghez, born in New York City and raised in Chicago, started the project in 1995, when she was a fresh new assistant professor at UCLA, looking for a project that would make good use of her talents in high-resolution imaging.

“I had no idea that this project would lead to such recognition” Ghez said. “I was a new assistant professor and I was just looking for tenure. It was my very first Keck proposal.”

Her proposal was accepted and she went to work showing how a technique called speckle imaging could be used to dramatically sharpen images using what was at the time the world’s only 10-meter optical-infrared telescope: Keck I.

Speckle imaging corrects for the blurring effects of the earth’s atmosphere in processing of images after they have been captured by the telescopes’ instruments. These allowed the first diffraction-limited images – that is, images that are limited by a telescope’s power rather than the Earth’s turbulent atmosphere – to be produced with these large ground-based telescopes.

“I wanted to show that speckle worked at Keck,” Ghez said.

It did and it produced the first images that had the full resolving power of the Keck telescope. But that was just a start.

By 1999 the Keck II telescope was also operating and had become the first large telescope in the world to employ adaptive optics, a technology that cancels out distortions in starlight created by turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere. That sharpened the images of the Galactic Center ten-fold and allowed diffraction-limited spectroscopic measurements to be made for the first time.

“It’s been like riding this incredible wave of technology,” Ghez said. “Since 1995 we have spent time at the telescopes every summer working on this. I had no idea what a rich project I was getting into at first. While the initial question was ‘is there a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy’, we have uncovered so many unexpected phenomena and technology has moved so fast that we created more questions than we answered”

“This research was possible thanks to the W. M. Keck Observatory, which houses the two largest telescopes in the world,” said Ghez. “They have enabled us to achieve the tremendous progress that we have made in correcting the distorting effects of the Earth’s atmosphere with high-angular resolution imaging. The most recent technology of adaptive optics is now opening up new horizons and allowing us to learn even more about this black hole at the center of our galaxy – how it was formed, how it grows and how to correctly describe the properties of space and time in the vicinity of such an exotic object.”

Another thing that helped the research was the competition between the two research teams, Ghez said.

“There’s nothing like competition to spur you on,” Ghez said. “It’s been a very collegial, constructive competition.”

And all that competition spins back around to drive the technology.

“Andrea has been a passionate and tireless user of the Keck telescopes and our high-angular-resolution imaging capabilities to study the Galactic Center and its super-massive black hole,” said Keck Observatory director Taft Armandroff. “I have no doubt that our adaptive optics capabilities are stronger and more tailored to address astrophysical questions by virtue of Andrea’s involvement and that of her team.”

The Crafoord Prize is an annual award that rotates between the disciplines of astronomy, mathematics, geosciences, biosciences and arthritis research. This year’s honorees came from mathematics and astronomy, fields last recognized in 2008.

The prize will be presented by the King of Sweden, at an award ceremony May 15, 2012.

Andrea Ghez will be the first woman to be awarded this prize in any field in its 30-year history.

Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Overlook vent

(Activity updates are written by scientiits at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.)

A lava lake present within the Halema`uma`u Overlook vent during the past week resulted in night-time glow that was visible from the Jaggar Museum overlook. The lake, which is about 100–125 m (330–410 ft) below the floor of Halema`uma`u Crater and is visible by HVO’s Webcam, rose and fell slightly during the week in response to a series of large deflation-inflation cycles.

On Kilauea’s east rift zone, surface lava flows that were active in the upper part of the flow field, about 3.5 km (2.2 miles) southeast of Pu`u `O`o, paused by January 14, and remained inactive for the next few days. Breakouts on the upper flow field resumed on Tuesday, January 17, but diminished again within a day. These fluctuations are controlled by varying lava supply at the vent due to summit deflation-inflation cycles. The flow field on the coastal plain remains inactive after activity stalled there three weeks ago, and the West Ka`ili`ili ocean entry is still inactive. Occasional short lava flows have been observed over the past week within Pu`u `O`o crater.

No earthquakes beneath Hawai`i Island were reported felt this past week.
Visit the HVO Web site (hvo.wr.usgs.gov) for detailed Kilauea and Mauna Loa activity updates, recent volcano photos, recent earthquakes, and more; call (808) 967-8862 for a Kilauea summary; email questions to askHVO@usgs.gov.

Kaoiki aftershocks recorded on a rotating drum seismograph at Desert station located within a few miles of the epicentral area of the Hawaii earthquake of November 16, 1983. USGS Photo

(Volcano Watch is a weekly article written by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.)

From 1912 to 1950, HVO used mechanical seismometers, called tromometers (derived from “tremble”), that recorded the vibrations sensed by a long, suspended boom. Imagine how an unlatched gate would swing back and forth in response to an earthquake, and you have a basic idea how these early instruments worked. Recordings were made as the end of the boom scratched a line on a smoke-coated paper on a cylindrical rotating drum. The instruments were quite large, consisting of a vertical post about 1.5 m (5 ft) high, to which a 1-m (3-ft) or longer boom was attached on one end and suspended by a wire and damped with a weight exceeding 100 pounds on its free end.

These mechanical tromometers had many limitations. The booms were easily dismantled by large earthquakes and had to be reassembled before operation could resume. They had low sensitivity and the HVO tromometers were able to detect earthquakes of only magnitude-3.0 or greater.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Joel Swartz, Hank Joesting, and Gordon Macdonald at the entrance to the seismograph station near the end of the Mauna Loa truck trail, at an elevation of approximately 7,000 feet. 1950. USGS Photo

In 1950, HVO had put an electromagnetic seismograph into operation as the first step in an upgrade of the network. The hiring of Jerry Eaton, a new seismology Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley, was the second step. He was the seventh seismologist to be stationed at Kilauea but the first who was familiar with the new electromagnetic seismographs that were destined to replace the mechanical tromometers.

The electromagnetic seismographs were based on a solenoid, a cylindrical coil of wire within which a metallic cylindrical core could move. Oscillation of the metal core within the wire coil during an earthquake would generate an electrical current in the wire which could be recorded in several ways. The electromagnetic seismograph had many benefits: they were much smaller, lighter, and their signals could be amplified to be 1,000 times more sensitive than the mechanical tromometers.

The electromagnetic seismograph could also be tuned to better detect the smaller earthquakes associated with Hawaiian volcanism. Eaton experimented with a few changes, using seismographs installed in his basement. HVO machinists used Eaton’s designs to modify an existing electromagnetic seismograph, dubbed HVO-1. When Jerry put an HVO-1 seismograph into operation alongside the older electromagnetic seismograph, “it recorded between 5 and 10 times as many earthquakes.” The network of electromagnetic seismometers was able to record 100 times more earthquakes and allowed the identification of families of earthquakes as they occurred through space and time.

But Jerry wasn’t done. He saw the value of monitoring ground tilt to forecast volcanic eruptions, but also saw the limitations in HVO’s 1950 methods, using the wanderings of the mechanical tromometer booms for the measurement.

Adapting a Japanese design, he and the HVO machinists built water-tube tiltmeters out of artillery-shell casings and garden hose. When completed and installed, they tracked the tromometer tilt very well, validating the concept. After setting up a small network of these tiltmeters to complement the expanding seismic network at Kilauea summit, Eaton was able to locate and track the subsurface magma injections, along with earthquakes, that led to the 1959 eruption of Kilauea Iki.

Jerry Eaton

In the 8 years Eaton was at HVO, he reinvigorated seismic and geodetic monitoring and, for his efforts, was able to propose the first comprehensive model for Kilauea’s eruption mechanism. Next week, the final Volcano Watch article in this series will complete the story of HVO’s first 100 years.

This week’s Volcano Awareness Month activities include a presentation about Mauna Loa in the Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park’s Visitor Center on January 24, a talk about HVO’s history of earthquake monitoring during the past 100 years at the University of Hawai`i at Hilo on January 26, and daily guided hikes in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. HVO scientists will also give a talk about Kilauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes at Lyman Museum on January 23 and will provide a display about, and be available to answer questions about, Hawaiian volcanoes at the annual Onizuka Science Day at UH-Hilo on January 28. Details about these activities are available at hvo.wr.usgs.gov or by calling 808-967-8844.

Thomas Jaggar (second from left) prepares to measure the temperature of the Halemaumau lava lake in 1917. Pictured, left to right, William Twigg-Smith, Thomas Jaggar, Lorrin Thurston, Joe Monez, and Alex Lancaster. Photo courtesy of USGS/HVO

(Volcano Watch is a weekly article written by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.)

Last week’s Volcano Watch described the events and efforts that led up to Thomas Jaggar’s arrival on Kilauea to start monitoring the volcano.

Thomas Jaggar stepped off the steamer “Mauna Kea” in Hilo on Wednesday morning, January 17, 1912, and, by noon, was at the Volcano House hotel on the northeast rim of Kilauea Caldera. He got right to work. By 4:30 p.m., he had surveyed elevations and mapped the lava lake within Halema`uma`u Crater.

The work was a one-man operation, with Jaggar living at the Volcano House hotel and making all the observations, which he reported to local newspapers every Thursday, as Frank A. Perret had started in 1911, and as we do today. It wasn’t long before Jaggar hired an assistant. Frank B. Dodge, an “athletic young Honoluluan and son of a government surveyor,” who also had hardy cowboy skills, arrived on January 24.

Besides monitoring, the main order of business was construction of a laboratory. Demosthenes Lycurgus, the well-known owner of the Volcano House hotel, spearheaded a local fund-raising effort, and Hilo businesses generously donated $1,785. The contract was awarded to H. Hackfeld & Co. (later named Amfac, Inc.), and the main building was constructed over a cellar for seismographs excavated by Territorial prisoners. The land was subleased from the Volcano House with the permission of its lessor, the Bishop Estate.

After being in Hawai`i for only 6 weeks, Jaggar received a cable from Boston asking him to come home immediately because both of his children, 4-month-old Eliza and 6-year-old Kline, were ill. He was on the next steamer east, leaving the Observatory duties to assistant Dodge.

While Jaggar was in Boston, the first scientific collaborators arrived at Kilauea to sample volcanic gases and remeasure lava temperatures. Dr. Arthur Day, Director of the Carnegie Laboratory, and Mr. E.S. Shepherd, the same scientist who had accompanied Frank Perret in 1911, arrived in early May 1912 and began setting up for their gas collections. On May 28, conditions were finally right, and they, with Frank Dodge, descended rope ladders into Halema`uma`u Crater, where they collected volcanic gases that had not yet been exposed to air—their main goal.

Until that moment, many prominent scientists believed that volcanic gases did not contain water. But as soon as they began pumping gases into collection bottles, heavy condensation within the sampling tubes indicated otherwise. “We were thereby enabled to gather a quantity of water sufficient to establish its existence among the volatile ingredients exhaled by the volcano beyond the criticism of the most skeptical.” Score one science victory for the Jaggar team.

Jaggar returned to Kilauea in mid-June with renewed focus. He was accompanied by seismologist H.O. Wood, who had recently studied California earthquakes after the 1906 San Francisco disaster. Wood’s job was to get the mechanical seismometers up and running in the cellar, now named the Whitney Vault in honor of Observatory benefactors Edward and Caroline Whitney.

“Thus in the first six months of 1912 I became a resident of a volcano in Hawaii and had an adequate laboratory . . .and the beginnings of seismograph records in the basement,” Jaggar wrote in his autobiography years later.

Throughout the first 40 years of HVO, staff scientists documented the activities of Kilauea, Mauna Loa, and Hualalai volcanoes. Earthquakes, seismic tremor, and ground tilting generally preceded and accompanied changes in eruptive activity. Rare events, such as an explosive and fatal eruption of Kilauea and an intrusion beneath Hualalai, were documented. But by 1953, when Thomas Jaggar died, the basic cadre of monitoring tools still relied on mechanical seismometers that detected earthquakes and swayed to ground tilt. That was all to change in the next decade.

HVO’s story will continue in next week’s Volcano Watch article. Volcano Awareness Month activities scheduled for this week include the story of HVO’s first 100 years in a program at the Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park’s Visitor Center on January 17, a talk about the impact of lava flows on Kalapana during the past 35 years at the University of Hawai`i at Hilo on January 19, and guided hikes in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Details about these activities are available at hvo.wr.usgs.gov or by calling 808-967-8844.

Halemaumau Overlook Vent time-lapse movie

(Activity updates are written by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.)

A lava lake present within the Halema`uma`u Overlook vent during the past week resulted in night-time glow that was visible from the Jaggar Museum overlook. The lake, which is about 100–125 m (330–410 ft) below the floor of Halema`uma`u Crater and visible by HVO’s Webcam, rose and fell slightly during the week in response to a series of large deflation-inflation cycles.

A burst of gas from a small vent in Pu‘u ‘O‘o crater throws spatter about 15 m (50 ft) into the air. Over the past week, occasional spattering and short lava flows have been observed within the crater. Photo courtesy of USGS/HVO

On Kilauea’s east rift zone, surface lava flows restarted on January 6 after a brief pause, with lava flow activity limited to a moderate-sized area of breakouts high above the pali, just 3.5 km (2.2 miles) southeast of Pu`u `O`o. Over the past week, these flows have advanced only a minor distance downhill, likely limited by fluctuations in lava supply due to the ongoing deflation-inflation cycles. The flow field on the coastal plain remains inactive after activity stalled there two weeks ago, and the West Ka`ili`ili ocean entry is still inactive. Occasional short flows and spattering have been observed over the past week within Pu`u `O`o crater.

Three earthquakes beneath Hawai`i Island were reported felt this past week. A magnitude-1.7 earthquake occurred at 1:00 a.m., HST, on Tuesday, January 10, 2012, and was located 8 km (5 mi) northwest of Hualalai summit at a depth of 15 km (9 mi). A magnitude-2.4 earthquake occurred at 1:45 p.m. on the same day and was located 9 km (6 mi) west of Kawaihae at a depth of 12 km (8 mi). A magnitude-2.0 earthquake occurred at 1:19 a.m. on Wednesday, January 11, and was located 5 km (3 mi) northwest of Captain Cook at a depth of 9 km (6 mi).

Visit the HVO Web site (hvo.wr.usgs.gov) for detailed Kilauea and Mauna Loa activity updates, recent volcano photos, recent earthquakes, and more; call (808) 967-8862 for a Kilauea summary; email questions to askHVO@usgs.gov

A single area of breakouts, visible as the silvery patch in the center of the photograph, was active on today’s overflight. These surface flows are high above the pali, about 3.5 km (2.2 miles) southeast of Pu‘u ‘O‘o cone. Pu‘u ‘O‘o is visible in the upper left portion of the image. The flows on the coastal plain, as well as the ocean entry, have been inactive for the last two weeks. Photo courtesy of USGS/HVO

Pu‘u ‘O‘o crater time-lapse movie

This artist's conception shows the KOI-961 planetary system. The system hosts the three smallest planets known to orbit a star beyond our sun (called KOI-961.01, KOI-961.02 and KOI-961.03). The smallest of these planets, KOI-961.03, is about the same size as Mars. All three planets take less than two days to whip around their star. Illustration courtesy of Caltech

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The planets KOI-961 are lined up with Mars, Earth and two other recently discovered near-Earth-sized exoplanets for size comparison. Illustration courtesy of Caltech

KAMUELA, HI – For years the search for exoplanets has largely been like Gulliver’s visit to Brobdingnag: colossal systems of giant gas planets orbiting mammoth stars. But astronomers have finally landed on the shores of Lilliput. They have found a tiny star with three puny planets, each smaller than Earth, zooming around it.

The three small exoplanets orbit a star called KOI-961. Their radii are calculated to be 78, 73 and 57 percent that of Earth. The sizes of the planets were worked out by Kepler Telescope observations that measured the dimming of the star KOI-961 as each planet passes in front of it. This plus crucial information about the star from Keck and Palomar telescopes enabled researchers to determine the sizes of the planets.

Although the masses of the three planets are unknown, they are suspected of being rocky, like Earth, Venus, Mars and Mercury. But they orbit too close to their star to be in the habitable zone where liquid water could exist. The three planets take less than two days to orbit around KOI-961, which is a red dwarf with a diameter one-sixth that of our sun, making it just 70 percent bigger than Jupiter.

“This is the tiniest solar system found so far,” said John Johnson, the principal investigator of the research from NASA’s Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “It’s actually more similar to Jupiter and its moons in scale than any other planetary system. The discovery is further proof of the diversity of planetary systems in our galaxy.”

Red dwarfs are the most common kind of star in our Milky Way galaxy. The discovery of three rocky planets around one red dwarf suggests that the galaxy could be teeming with similar rocky planets.

“These types of systems could be very common in the universe,” said Phil Muirhead, lead author of the new study from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “This is a really exciting time for planet hunters.”

This artist’s conception compares the KOI-961 planetary system to Jupiter and its four largest moons. The planet and moon orbits are drawn to the same scale. The sizes of the stars, planets and moons have been increased for visibility Illustration courtesy of Caltech

Muirhead’s team used data publicly released by the Kepler mission, along with follow-up observations from the Palomar Observatory, near San Diego, and the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

The researchers determined the sizes of the three planets (called KOI-961.01, KOI-961.02 and KOI-961.03) with the help of a well-studied twin star to KOI-961, called Barnard’s Star. Spectra of both stars obtained by the Keck I telescope’s High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES) show the stars to be almost identical. By matching KOI-961 with Barnard’s Star in this way, they could then work out how big the planets must be to have caused the observed dips in starlight.

In addition to the telescope observations, the team used modeling techniques to confirm the planet discoveries. Their measurements dramatically reduced the sizes of the planets from what was originally estimated from Kepler measurements.

“Astronomers are just beginning to confirm the thousands of planet candidates uncovered by Kepler so far,” said Doug Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Finding one as small as Mars is amazing, and hints that there may be a bounty of rocky planets all around us.”

The Kepler Mission is a space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 that measures light from 150,000 stars. Scientists working with Kepler data look for changes in stellar brightness that suggest a transit, or a planet passing in front of a star. They use measurements of the star’s luminosity to determine whether the planet is in a “habitable zone,” an area where the planet would be stable and conditions hospitable to life could exist.

The W. M. Keck Observatory operates two 10-meter optical/infrared telescopes on the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The twin telescopes feature a suite of advanced instruments including imagers, multi-object spectrographs, high-resolution spectrographs, integral-field spectroscopy and a world-leading laser guide star adaptive optics system which cancels out much of the interference caused by Earth’s turbulent atmosphere. The Observatory is a private 501(c) 3 non-profit organization and a scientific partnership of the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and NASA.

Karin Stanton | Hawaii 24/7 Editor

The Science Advisory Committee, which makes recommendations to the Thirty Meter Telescope board, is meeting for the first time on the Big Island this week.

In addition to a three-day slate of meetings, the agenda featured a site visit Monday – the first time some of the astronomers and scientists have seen the telescope’s proposed home atop Mauna Kea.

The committee includes representatives from China and India, partners in the world’s largest telescope. The two countries are on board to kick in construction funds for the $1.3 billion project.

China joined as an observer in 2009 and India in 2010. Both countries stepped up their participation and are now full partners in the project, which is slated to be complete in 2018.

Japan, which already operates the Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea, has been a partner since 2008.

G.C. Anupama, Indian Institute of Astrophysics professor, said she appreciated the opportunity to see Mauna Kea for herself during this visit to the Big Island.

“It has helped to visit the mountain. It was a great experience,” she said. “I’m all the more convinced it is the best place for this telescope.”

Shude Mao, professor of astrophysics at National Astronomical Observatories of China, said he was impressed during a visit to the Keck Observatory, which uses segment mirrors similar to the ones planned for TMT.

“The site looks beautiful,” he said. “TMT has inherited much from Keck. The size of Keck is amazing and TMT will be even more amazing.”

TMT’s segmented primary mirror – which really is 30 meters, or about 98 feet, in diameter – will have nine times the light-collecting area of the largest optical telescopes currently in use.

Sandra Dawson, TMT’s manager for Hawaii community relations, said the project is pleased to welcome astronomy colleagues from China and India.

“They are very enthusiastic about their role in TMT,” she said. “It’s very exciting to bring two countries that haven’t been involved in a project like this. We think it’s exciting for Hawaii, for astronomy and for the world.”

The committee meets quarterly and is charged with making scientific recommendations to the board.

“These are, in fact, the customers,” Dawson said. “We want to get the best science for the money.”

The committee continues its discussions through Thursday.

The TMT project has received approval from the state Board of Land and Natural Resources, but was the subject of a contested case hearing, which wrapped up in September.

Dawson said the contested case hearing officer has yet to give a final recommendation to the BLNR. There is no deadline for that report.

The non-profit TMT Observatory Corporation was founded in June 2003 by its partners: the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy, the University of California, and the California Institute of Technology.

TMT Science Advisory Committee participants:

Ray Carlsberg (Canada)
Masanori Iye (Japan)
Nobonaari Kashikawa (Japan)
Judy Cohen (Caltech)
Chuck Steidel (Caltech)
Mike Bolte (UC)
Tim Davidge (Canada)
Paul Hickson (Canada)
Masayuki Akiyama (Japan)
Tomonori Usuda (Japan)
Shude Mao (China)
G.C. Anupama (India)
Charlie Telesco (US)
George Angeli (TMT)
Brent Ellerbrock (TMT)
Suzanne Tremblay (Canada)
Matthias Schoeck (TMT)
Luc Simard (Canada)

— Find out more:
www.tmt.org