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sff_corgi_ljHAPPY BIRTHDAYS, CARLY AND DAVID!
Does it mean anything that I feel like talking about a volcano on your birthday? I'm thinking not, but it's kinda different, no?
We're kinda priviledged to witness the birth of a new Hawai'ian island -- probably. It was only in 1955 that the seamount was discovered by noted geologist K.O. Emery. And it was only in the early 1980's that it was officially recognized as an active undersea volcano, rising from the same "hot spot" that birthed each of the Hawaiian islands.
Since then, Lo'ihi has made just enough noise to keep researchers guessing what will happen next. In the summer of 1996, for example, more than 4,000 earthquakes were recorded at the seamount, the most ever detected from any Hawaiian volcano. Unfortunately, no camping trips any time soon: Continued volcanism is expected to eventually build a new island at Loihi; time estimates for the summit to reach the sea surface range from roughly 10,000 to 100,000 years.
Awwww, maaaaaan! I wanted fireworks! Lo'ihi is located just southeast of Kilauea on the southeast coast of The Big Island, Hawai'i itself, but has a separate 'circulatory system' to that very active volcano. Its name means 'long', as it has a pronounced north-south axis. The summit remains almost 1000m below sea level and its last big spate of activity, which collapsed its previous summit, was nearly a decade ago. However, that activity was record-breaking, and it's not showing any signs of cooling off permanently -- there were a couple of earthquake spikes in 2001 and 2003, but no apparently great outpouring of landbuilding.
But breaking surface, like a slow-motion Atlantis? Nah. :( However, it's still exciting for multiple disciplines of scientists. The Hawaii Center for Volcanology has a Lo'ihi page of rather sluggish currency. The page from the USGS is a little more recent. 'Americasroof' is a blog for 'news stories about the highest points in the world and u.s.' (a little redundant, that, but very Bushian) and seems to produce a lot of entries about Hawai'ian volcanism and astronomy.
It's still a new island. And we got to see it.
One of the vents at Lo'ihi is named after the famous goddess Pele's sister (one of seven), Kapo. Naturally, I was curious. Turns out Kapo`ula`kïna`u is one of several goddesses of the Hula; is associated with fertility and herbal healing; and is also a powerful magician (which, in anthro-feminist-speak, follows and would almost be a given); she's also known as Laka or Kapo-Laka in some places, merging her with another sister who brought the 'dance' responsibility. According to one account I found, the Lady of the southern oceans is married to Kanaloa, Lord of the South, ruler of the oceans and mana -- and the unfortunate diety the missionaries decided to label as the Devil when they arrived in the islands to start converting people. Another webpage says she's goddess of anaa'ana, too, which are '(the prayers to cause death and to bring the dead back to life). (These prayers end up figuring prominently in a Pele story.)
I found an amusing and earthy story about how Kapo saved her sister from having to fight off the unwanted advances of the first male chauvinist pig (no, really) by detaching and throwing her ma'i or kohe all the way to O'ahu, after which it returned to her like a boomerang. *cough* Um. Yes. Anyway, it reminded me of the story of the dance for Amaterasu. (Not![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
amaterasu's dance, since I don't know if she dances that way.)
Unsurprisingly, as both a magician and the consort of 'the Devil', Kapo has gained a bad rep... when non-natives have deigned to notice a female deity at all. [ironic grimace] Seems a bit like Kali in that way, although it's my impression Kali's followers seemed to've done more damage than Herself. ([snark] Like what NeoCons are doing to Yeshua ben Yosef? [/snark])
Mauna Loa is considered the tallest mountain on earth when measured from its true base to summit. 56,080 ft (17,170 m)! And it gets snow!
Does it mean anything that I feel like talking about a volcano on your birthday? I'm thinking not, but it's kinda different, no?
We're kinda priviledged to witness the birth of a new Hawai'ian island -- probably. It was only in 1955 that the seamount was discovered by noted geologist K.O. Emery. And it was only in the early 1980's that it was officially recognized as an active undersea volcano, rising from the same "hot spot" that birthed each of the Hawaiian islands.
Since then, Lo'ihi has made just enough noise to keep researchers guessing what will happen next. In the summer of 1996, for example, more than 4,000 earthquakes were recorded at the seamount, the most ever detected from any Hawaiian volcano. Unfortunately, no camping trips any time soon: Continued volcanism is expected to eventually build a new island at Loihi; time estimates for the summit to reach the sea surface range from roughly 10,000 to 100,000 years.
Awwww, maaaaaan! I wanted fireworks! Lo'ihi is located just southeast of Kilauea on the southeast coast of The Big Island, Hawai'i itself, but has a separate 'circulatory system' to that very active volcano. Its name means 'long', as it has a pronounced north-south axis. The summit remains almost 1000m below sea level and its last big spate of activity, which collapsed its previous summit, was nearly a decade ago. However, that activity was record-breaking, and it's not showing any signs of cooling off permanently -- there were a couple of earthquake spikes in 2001 and 2003, but no apparently great outpouring of landbuilding.
But breaking surface, like a slow-motion Atlantis? Nah. :( However, it's still exciting for multiple disciplines of scientists. The Hawaii Center for Volcanology has a Lo'ihi page of rather sluggish currency. The page from the USGS is a little more recent. 'Americasroof' is a blog for 'news stories about the highest points in the world and u.s.' (a little redundant, that, but very Bushian) and seems to produce a lot of entries about Hawai'ian volcanism and astronomy.
It's still a new island. And we got to see it.
One of the vents at Lo'ihi is named after the famous goddess Pele's sister (one of seven), Kapo. Naturally, I was curious. Turns out Kapo`ula`kïna`u is one of several goddesses of the Hula; is associated with fertility and herbal healing; and is also a powerful magician (which, in anthro-feminist-speak, follows and would almost be a given); she's also known as Laka or Kapo-Laka in some places, merging her with another sister who brought the 'dance' responsibility. According to one account I found, the Lady of the southern oceans is married to Kanaloa, Lord of the South, ruler of the oceans and mana -- and the unfortunate diety the missionaries decided to label as the Devil when they arrived in the islands to start converting people. Another webpage says she's goddess of anaa'ana, too, which are '(the prayers to cause death and to bring the dead back to life). (These prayers end up figuring prominently in a Pele story.)
I found an amusing and earthy story about how Kapo saved her sister from having to fight off the unwanted advances of the first male chauvinist pig (no, really) by detaching and throwing her ma'i or kohe all the way to O'ahu, after which it returned to her like a boomerang. *cough* Um. Yes. Anyway, it reminded me of the story of the dance for Amaterasu. (Not
amaterasu's dance, since I don't know if she dances that way.)Unsurprisingly, as both a magician and the consort of 'the Devil', Kapo has gained a bad rep... when non-natives have deigned to notice a female deity at all. [ironic grimace] Seems a bit like Kali in that way, although it's my impression Kali's followers seemed to've done more damage than Herself. ([snark] Like what NeoCons are doing to Yeshua ben Yosef? [/snark])
Mauna Loa is considered the tallest mountain on earth when measured from its true base to summit. 56,080 ft (17,170 m)! And it gets snow!
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-21 04:29 pm (UTC)Between things we're still finding out about our own world and stuff we're learning about our solar system, it's just a world of excitement! I wish we'd had stuff like this to augment our classroom experiences in science - I might have been more interested, then!
Oddly, I've never been all that excited about Hawaii, but the idea of a new volcano becoming an island is just completely cool. Even if we certainly won't live to see it - nor even for many generations to come - it's so nifty that the ongoing process reveals so much information.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-22 04:42 am (UTC)You can indeed see Lo'ihi now... just not, y'know, dry. ^_^
no subject
Date: 2005-01-22 03:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-23 01:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-21 09:31 pm (UTC)There is probably some kind of comment I could make about Stargate Atlantis here but I can't quite think of one at the moment.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-22 04:42 am (UTC)