[tcb] Re: VOLCANO DAY!
- From: James Dwan <james_dwan_2000@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2013 07:43:40 -0700 (PDT)
Falafel sandwich? You hippy!
James
DAC
TCB
'59 23 Window Deluxe
'73/'77 Westfakia
'78 Super Vert
________________________________
From: Denis Dodson <coocoo@xxxxxxx>
To: tcb <tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Jan Dodson <dodsonjan19@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2013 10:30 PM
Subject: [tcb] VOLCANO DAY!
Well, where were we? I was deciding what to eat at the Kalapana market. It was
Hawaiian BBQ ribs, cut across the bones with pineapple, and since Dave had
never eaten Falafel we split a big sandwich of that.
On top of Mauna Kea (White Mountain) is a bunch of giant telescopes, I think I
talked about that, and the biggest one, worlds largest. is the Keck Telescope,
but I learned that there is no one up there putting their eye to the eyepiece.
Instead there is a small crew of maintenance people up there and the scientists
are viewing everything on their computer screens all over the world. Their
headquarters is in Waimea, on the North side of the Island. A town full of pick
up trucks and cowboys called Paniolas, home of the largest privately held
cattle ranch in the U.S.
It just so happens that it is the telescope's 20th anniversary and they had a
big open house with lots of exhibits and tours and a 3D movie and short
lectures by big brained scientists. It was a blast to the geek in me.
We were planning on bundling up and going to the summit (13,700 ft) the next
day but when we got to the actual control room for the scope, a surprisingly
small room with lots of big computer screens, they had no image because they
had closed all the shutters and closed down the scope because the temperature
outside was 15 degrees below zero and, more importantly, the winds were gusting
at 115 MILES PER HOUR! So, sadly the summit was out.
So, we had a quiet day in the hammock and worked on Dave's bus. the Clevis pin
that holds the clutch cable to the pedal arm came apart. Piece of crap. Only 47
years and it breaks.
So, yesterday was VOLCANO DAY!!! We wore long pants and good shoes and climbed
in the bus to over 4000' to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We went on a little
nature tour where the cute perky girl Ranger talked about the invasive species
that are effecting the indigenous animals and plants. Yellow Ginger BAD. She
told how it smells so good when it flowers, so we should pick the flowers and
put them in our cars and then KILL IT! She told us that when we see Mongooses
crossing the road not to slow down, KILL THEM!
We walked in a huge lava tube, which looked like a movie set for a cave, and we
walked around steam vents where rain water fills up these big holes and cracks
in the ground and the volcano boils the water and steam shoots out. We saw a
big smelly steaming heap of sulfur. Much of the park was closed off because of
sulfur dioxide belching from the crater. The top of the volcano is a really
huge crater called a caldera. It was huge and had a flat bottom until 1980 when
a merely giant crater opened up and started shooting lave. It has been erupting
ever since. Kiluea is a "shield" volcano so they don't generally explode like
Mt. St Helens, they just ooze an unbelievable amount of lava for years.
All you see during day light is steam and white smoke coming from the crater,
so we left and drove a bunch to the sea and saw petroglyphs cut in to lava, and
a sea arch and just beautiful stuff. When we got back to the caldera overlook
it was just getting dark and THERE IT WAS! Fire in the crater! We had
binoculars and we could see actual lava shooting up. Not a lot, but it was
there.
Tomorrow we are going to the Mauna Kea Visitor's Center. It is only 9000'. They
have telescope shows every night.
The Pahoa High Schools' football team is called The Daggers
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