From Mauna Kea to Haleakala

Aloha from Maui, once again! The Project ISLE group took an inter-island flight one island over on Tuesday, and we are enjoying a much needed break from the cold weather that comes with high altitudes. Before we left, however, we took a trip up the world's tallest mountain. Mount Everest is the highest mountain with the greatest elevation, but it sits on a thick continental plate. Mauna Kea is considered the world's tallest mountain when measured from the base, which is at the bottom of the ocean. Anyway, there are plants and animals up here that are found no where else in the world. Like the above Silversword. This iridescent silver plant blooms once every 50 years and is on the endangered species list (yes, plants can be on there too!!) I took this picture near the visitor's center, which is at 9,000 feet.
While at the visitor's center, I saw a big looming cloud in the distance and thought I heard thunder. When I asked about it, several people thought it was just the trucks on the road up the mountain. Well, come to find out, it was thunder snow! Mauna Kea is Hawaiian for "white mountain" and it snows up here several times a year. We were lucky enough to be there on a day when it snowed in JUNE (pretty rare)! Here's the view out of the windshield of our four wheel drive van ascending to 14,000 feet.
They do some intense astronomical research up there. WAY over my head.
This is the Subaru Telescope, which has nothing to do with the car company. This telescope is funded completely by the Japanese and costs about $100,000 a day to run. The main mirror of this telescope weighs 22 tons, took 3 years to make, and an additional 4 years to polish. It takes an entire month to clean it, which they do every 3-4 years. I think they said the mirror was 30 feet across. I guess I don't know very much about astronomy because my naive brain pictured a HUGE telescope with a little eyepiece somewhere at the bottom of it. These fancy telescopes are controlled entirely by computers and most of the scientists using them aren't even in the building when they use it!
A small group of us braved the thin air and hiked out to one of the world's only permafrost fed lakes. This altitude has only about half the oxygen that sea level has, so we were huffing and puffing the whole way here.
Back down at the visitor's center, Steve O'Meara (world renowned volcanologist and astronomer) showed us a few things with his own telescope. It was really dark, so I played around with my camera settings :)
Mike, one of the ISLE participants was nice enough to stand still for a really long time so I could get this cool shot.
Now to Maui. Yesterday was our first full day, and we traveled around hearing various speakers. Here are two ISLE participants at the Maui Humpback Whale Marine Sanctuary with their newest creations. The education specialists at the sanctuary gave our teachers a bunch of great ideas to take back to their classrooms!
This morning's sunrise. Camp Olowalu is right on the beach, and our little A-frame cabins have screen windows only. I listen to the waves crashing on the beach all night and wake up to birds chirping in the morning. So peaceful.
Here we are at another telescope on top of another volcano (Haleakala). However, this telescope focuses on learning about the sun. It's the biggest solar telescope in the world. There are several other telescopes at the top of Haleakala including one that has the largest (published) camera with 1.3 giga pixels and another Air Force telescope that specializes in detecting attack satellites. Apparently there are people out there (terrorists?) who may not be able to shoot their own billion dollar satellite into space, but can shoot up another small one with missiles designed to blow up another country's billion dollar satellite and cause a major disruption in communication. Interesting stuff.

Here we are down at the Haleakala visitor's center. It was SO WINDY, but we had a lot of fun. The next several days here on Maui will focus on snorkeling, island ecology, and marine issues. My underwater camera is 35mm, so it'll be a while until I can post those pictures. Should be fun!

Dozing Sea Turtles on the Black Sand Beach

We only have a few more days on the Big Island before the transition day to Maui, and we have had some incredible experiences, such as the one above taken at the Kilauea Caldera. However, of all the amazing things we've seen, yesterday seems to take the cake in my mind. We left Kilauea Military Camp early on Saturday to head to Punalu'u Black Sand Beach. True black sand beaches only form when lava flows directly into the ocean. The lava cools so rapidly that it splatters and sizzles forming tiny bits of lava (sand). While this is very cool in and of itself, the visitors to the beach are what really make this place incredible. Punalu'u is the only beach in the world (to my knowledge) where sea turtles come out of the water by their own free will to bask in the sun on the beach. Sea turtles are large, heavy animals that are graceful and free-flowing in the ocean, but clumsy and VERY slow moving on land. Over time, most sea turtles around the world "learned" not to go out of the water where they wouldn't be able to get away from predators quickly and easily. However, since Hawaii is the most remote land mass in the world, there are no predators other than humans. The only native animals that live on the land here are birds, insects and other invertebrates. While scientists don't know exactly why sea turtles come up to lounge around on Punalu'u beach, my hunch is that they somehow "know" it's safe to come out of the water here.

There are pretty strict regulations in place to protect the sea turtles. Here's our guide discussing the reasons why we have to stay 15 feet away from the turtles at all times.




We also went on a few amazing hikes over the past few days. The picture below was taken on a one mile hike through a bird sanctuary.




This picture was taken at the Kilauea Iki trail that runs through an old lava lake (4 miles.)



I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. We're going up to the Astronomical Observatory on the top of Mauna Kea (one of the five volcanoes on this island.) We'll stay up there to watch the sunset from above the cloud line. Lots of pictures to follow!

Teachers on the Big Island

Our Project ISLE teachers arrived on Tuesday June 7th, so we are now in our fourth day of Project ISLE. My original plan to post every day has (obviously) not worked out like I wanted, but here are a few things that have happened over the past few days.

First, check out this amazing sunrise I saw the morning of the 7th a few hours before the teachers arrived

Our first activity was a hike to the steam vents in Volcano National Park. We have SUCH a GREAT group of teachers here!
Our first full day began with a Hawaiian cultural experience with students from a local Hula school. They taught us the significance of leis and lei-making, what the movements in Hula mean, and the meaning of the whole process to the Hawaiian culture (NOT just a dance!) We then made our own leis. Check out mine below. The leis worn on the head are supposed to be parallel to the Earth to signify that we are not higher than or lower than the Earth, but a part of it.

The Big Island also has some amazing Astronomical research facilities. Here is my major professor and I at a planetarium show.

Lastly, the coolest thing we've seen has been the LAVA! There are no active lava flows at this time, but here you can see the lava from a deep lava lake reflecting off the ash and steam of the Halemau'ma'u Crater.

Good morning from the Big Island

In preparation for the teachers' arrival, we are running around, meeting with potential speakers, and scouting out our activity locations, such as the above picture taken from inside a lava tube. Yesterday we said goodbye to Maui and flew to the Big Island. When the teachers arrive for Project ISLE on Tuesday, we’ll stay in Volcano National Park. Until then, some of the co-directors are enjoying a cottage in the middle of the Hawaiian rainforest. The sounds of the forest are incredible, especially at night. Check out the clip below taken just before sunrise from my bedroom porch:



Apparently, these tiny Coqui frogs just arrived about a decade ago, and they’ve run wild on this side of the island. They croak all night long, and most of the locals absolutely hate them. If invasive, they may be outcompeting another native frog species (if there is one). But as far as the sound goes, I like them. They sound to me like the “frog” setting on our sound machine at home :)

Another thing I’m enjoying is the FOOD. I know Hawaii isn’t a foreign country, but it really feels like one a lot of the time. On Friday I had “poke” (pronounced POH-kay), for the first time. Poke is a delicious, traditional Hawaiian dish made from sashimi-grade (i.e. uncooked) marinated Ahi tuna. It looks sort of like a tomato salad. I also tried a lichee fruit for the first time. We ate dinner at a local’s house on Friday night, and I picked up a lichee and asked if it was a fungus (because that’s what it looked like.) They are about the size of a golf ball, and have a hard, dark brown, bumpy shell. When peeled, they look and feel kinda like an eyeball, but they taste the way a Gardenia flower smells. Incredible. Last night I had this fabulous dish during my first Vietnamese dinner experience:




This is “Ban” a Vietnamese barbecue chicken dish (SPICY!) with sliced spring rolls over long noodles, over a romaine and mint salad, with a tart side sauce (yes, all at the same time). I LOVED it.

Today is our first full day on the Big Island, so we’re going to do a lot of running around to acquaint me with this massive island. All the other Hawaiian Islands could easily fit inside this island (with room to spare). By the way, now that the sun has come up, check out how the sounds have changed:

Aloha!

After 21 hours of travel and airports, airports, and more airports, I am finally beginning my first full day in Hawaii. If you’re looking at the number 21 in the last sentence and thinking “Oh how miserable,” then stop yourself right there. I left the house at 7 in the morning and laid my head down at the Upcountry Bed and Breakfast at around 4 EST, but every minute of the trip was worth it. There is something about Hawaii that just grabs you by the heart strings, dives into your soul, and makes you fall in love with it. For example, this is my view from the adorable bed and breakfast where I’m staying:




It’s at about 3000 feet above sea level, and I’ve been told that you can see whales in the bay if you’re lucky :)

Anyway, today is going to be a busy day. This is the start of our “prep week” in which we get everything ready for the teachers who arrive June 7th. We (well, I) are going to be driving around the island and visiting the sites of the various activities. Len, my colleague who co-authored the grant with me, lived on Maui for a number of years and ran Project ISLE as a business for a while, so he knows the island. On the other hand, I need to figure out where everything is, so I’m driving today. We’ll also be going to Costco (yes, there are Costco’s on Hawaii! My favorite place! I might never come home…) to finalize our meal plan for Maui. We have a cafeteria at KMC, but we’re our own chefs at Camp Olowalu, which will be fun :)

More to come later! Mahalo