Island Hopping

31.10.2024 18:37

Gaussling.wordpress.com

We returned from Hawai’i two weeks ago after 4 nights on Maui and 4 nights on Hawai’i Island (the Big Island). I’ve been trying to summon words to describe the visit, but I keep coming up short. I can certainly see the appeal.

Sunset from atop Mauna Kea, 13,800 ft. Three if the 13 observatories there are visible on the right. What doesn’t come through is howling and freezing wind. Very cold. Photo by Arnold Ziffel.

Above is a sunset photo from atop Mauna Kea on the big island. Our guide said the whole island can be thought of Mauna Loa with numerous volcanoes along the slopes. One of them is Mauna Kea and another is Kilauea and Hualalai Volcano. Many smaller cinder cones dot the slopes of Mauna Loa. The island is layered with fresh jet-black lava flows

We took the open-door helicopter tour from the Kahului airport in Maui to the southeast coast of Molokai and back. The doors were removed and 6 of us wedged into the helicopter. It was the most exhilarating ride in an aircraft I’ve ever taken. We flew along the northeast coastline of Maui pausing to follow the canyons to the end and watching in wonder the rainforest below clinging to the extremely steep canyon walls. Waterfalls are everywhere. In the photo below, we followed a stream up the canyon on Maui and saw a waterfall coming straight out of the mountain. I guess I didn’t realize that the lava formations could be so porous. As you drive by the a’a lava flows you can see how the irregular piling of lava flows when stacked vertically could be porous.

Pilot’s eye view of streams coming out of the rock walls and forming these waterfalls on Maui. Photo by Arnold Ziffel.

The photo below shows a very narrow gorge and waterfall on the extremely steep cliffs along the eastern shore of Molokai. It’s hard to know if the narrowness and depth of the gorge is due to rapid stream erosion or is an artifact of how the lava flows piled up. Several of the locations on both Maui and Molokai have some of the highest annual rainfall on earth. These rainy mountainous areas have been called ‘vertical bogs’.

East coast of Molokai with its steep cliffs next to the shoreline and an extremely narrow gorge. Photo by Fred Ziffel.

Situated near the summit of Mauna Kea are 13 astronomical observatories. One that I was unaware of is the Submillimeter Array shown below. The telescopes are placed in such a manner as to act as an interferometer. It has been used along with the adjacent James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. The Maxwell telescope is designed to observe from the far infrared to the microwave range.

Five of the eight 6-meter submillimeter radio telescopes located near the summit of Mauna Kea at 13,425 feet. Photo by Sam Drucker.

Hawai’i is an amazing place, and I can now understand what all of the hype is about.