Friday 15 May 2009

Halema`uma`u and Pu`u `O`o

I hope I have the apostrophes in the right places. Halema`uma`u is the crater at the summit of Kilauea and Pu`u `O`o is the crater that lava has been flowing from since 1984. After an oxygen and sleep-deprived stay on Mauna Kea I'm never at my sharpest. It's why you see so few long blog posts from me from the summit or just after I've returned to sea level. Having said that, though, I'm still impressed with myself for actually spelling anticrepuscular in the last couple of posts.

Anyway, the picture above was taken a couple of days ago at dawn from the lower parking lot at Vacation Resort Hale Pohaku. The two volcanic plumes from the summit and rift zone can be seen quite clearly (do you really expect me to type "Halema`uma`u" and "Pu`u `O`o" again?). The picture was taken from 9000-feet and about 35-miles away from the plumes. The vog that they've produced seems to have reached the summit regions of both Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea in the last couple of days and I'll try and post a picture of that soon. It's rare the stuff gets up that high, it's usually capped below 10,000 feet, but the mid-level atmosphere has looked awfully dirty recently.

You can actually see the plumes burst through the inversion layer, but I don't think that's the reason the vog has got to the summits - that inversion layer is thousands of feet below the summits of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea.

7 comments:

Andrew Cooper said...

That looks like Pu'u O'o and the ocean entry near Kalapana to me. Halema'uma'u would be more the the west (right) in the view from the summit access road.

Keera Ann Fox said...

They would be in the right place if they were apostrophes. ;-) ´and ` are accents and belong above a letter, like in é or à. ' is a nice ASCII apostrophe. (Sorry, just had to. I do typography for a living.)

Anyway, thanks for the peek at the plumes!

Tom said...

Hi Andrew - you might be right but I'm pretty certain this is Halema'uma'u (to the right) and Pu'u O'o (to the left).

Not too long ago I saw all three plumes and the ocean entry was a *long* way further east (to the left). Unfortunately I didn't have my camera!

I did try to and see the ocean entry plume from here (bottom of the lower parking lot at HP) but there was too much cloud.

Unless there's some foreshortening effect I've not seen before, I'm sticking with my original identification!

Tom

Tom said...

Keera - you've done it now, I'll have to look up the Hawaiian name for apostrophe!

All I wanted to do is make sure I had the "whatever they're called" thingies in the right place - didn't want to offend anyone!

It's amazing how a few days spent at altitude robs me of even the most basic concepts of language yet I can deal with complicated maths and physics. I've not figured that out so far.

Good to hear from you again!

Tom

Andrew Cooper said...

The correct name for the character is 'Okina, and it is a regular character in the Hawai'ian language, as much as a,b,c,d...

It is not an accent and does not go over another character!

Check out my posting on the 'Okina and other special Hawai'ian characters...

Digital Hawai'ian

Andrew Cooper said...

Nope, it is Pu'u O'o and the ocean entry. Halema'uma'u is behind the eastern ridge of Mauna Loa from the 9,000 ft level of HP. You see it much better from near the summit.

Keera Ann Fox said...

I'm glad I commented! Now I've learned something about the Hawaiian language! And I stand corrected. It ain't no apostrophe, neither.