[Rockhounds] Ongoing Eruptions...and green sand

[Kitty]

Yesterday we had a 4.6 earthquake from the action at Kilauea, which we 
felt at our house as one big jolt, but no damage.  There's a website for 
the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (I've posted this before: 
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatories/hvo/hvo_earthquakes.html ) that 
shows the time, magnitude and depth of earthquakes and since the lava 
began to flow from Kilauea on May 3 and a BIG quake on May 4 -- 6.9 in 
magnitude that toppled vases and books and rocks off shelves in our 
house -- there have been an average of 250 small (1.2 to 3.0) quakes per 
day.  Whether we feel them or not apparently depends on where the quake 
is and/or how deep it is.  The HVO site shows some that were 5.5 and we 
didn't notice them.  But earthquakes are the only consequence of the 
activity at Kilauea that we experience at our home.  Floods, tsunamis 
and lava flows can't get to our location on the lower slopes of Mauna 
Kea. And so far vog and laze haven't reached here either.  But to date 
over 700 houses have been destroyed by lava from Kilauea!  There's a lot 
more houses that lava has cut off access by road, and the residents have 
either left before the lava came close, or were evacuated by 
helicopter.  That's created a homeless crowd of around 2000 people, some 
living with friends or family, some staying in B&B's or other hotels 
(some at vastly reduced rates from sympathetic owners/managers), some 
living in shelters provided by the state & county government (who are 
making more shelters rapidly), and some are living in tents, mostly 
donated from a concerned public.  Many businesses are suffering too;  
for example, shops & restaurants in the Volcano (town) area which are 
NOT in the danger area, are suffering from reduced patrons to the point 
where some are closing...causing their employees to join the hundreds of 
people with financial problems.  Another business problem is a huge 
reduction in tourists coming to the Big Island; many people on the 
mainland and worldwide think "A volcano is destroying Hawaii? I'm not 
going there!"  So Maui, Oahu and even Kauai (the northernmost island) 
are suffering a diminution of tourism, but the Big Island is suffering 
more, even though the area affected is really small.  The vog sometimes 
drifts northwest to Kona or Hilo, but the effect is just a slight whiff 
of sulfur smell, and some people cough or have a little eye-watering, 
but nothing major.

Regarding green sand:  Papalokea Beach (or commonly known as Green Sand 
Beach) is at the very tip of South Point on the Big Island. Bill and I 
went there in the early 1980's.  We had a 4WD Mitsubishi Montero and it 
was needed to navigate the many ruts created by other vehicles when the 
soil was soft after a rain. When we got to the end of the "road" it was 
a long hike to get down to the beach (and back up!!).  There are some 
very good photos on Wikipedia: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papakolea_Beach   They show how the beach 
is not really a spectacular green.  Little bits of olivine are mixed in 
with lava cinder;  I've painstakingly sorted out about a teaspoonful of 
olivine grains from their cinder companions and they are beautiful, but 
in their natural environment the beach is gray with a touch of greenish 
tone.

As a matter of fact, most of the rocks in our yard contain bits or small 
chunks of olivine.  The gravel or cinder that forms our driveway -- 
gotten from a quarry in Hilo city -- has grains of olivine in almost 
every piece that you might pick up and examine.

Aloha, Kitty


On 6/18/2018 8:59 PM, gary brown wrote:
> At dinner tonight we fell to talking with some folks at another table.  One
> of the guys has (emphasis on HAS) a house right near the flows.  Luckily, he
> is high enough (for now) to be cleared.  He showed us some amazing photos
> and videos that he took.  It's one thing to see postings in facebook and the
> like.  It's a whole different thing when a guy is showing you HIS phone with
> pictures he took on his street.
>
> GcB