[Rockhounds] Ongoing Eruptions...and green sand

[pmodreski at aol.com]

Nice to read your report on things, Kitty!  I've been keeping pretty well informed about the volcano, through my contacts at the USGS; in fact, I help to prepare and forward (internally) one our reports of links to news stories that mention USGS activities--including what goes on at Kilauea and at HVO.


Speaking of the green sand and the news stories about "green gems falling from the sky" with the volcanic ash, have you all seen the followup to this--that "this isn't really happening", the person who was the source of the whole story, misinterpreted/misunderstood where and how people find peridot on the island--it isn't really falling with the volcanic ash.  Here's a link:



NOT REAL NEWS: Erupting Hawaii volcano not raining gemstones
SFGate | 06/19/2018


Cheers, Pete Modreski



-----Original Message-----
From: Kitty <kahako at hawaiiantel.net>
To: gary brown <gbrown at catspaw-minerals.com>; rockhounds <rockhounds at rockhounds.drizzle.com>
Sent: Wed, Jun 20, 2018 4:54 pm
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Ongoing Eruptions...and green sand

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, KittyOn 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_______________________________________________Rockhounds mailing listSubscription Services:  http://rockhounds.drizzle.com/mailman/listinfo/rockhounds_rockhounds.drizzle.comList Usage Policy: http://Tomaszewski.net/Kreigh/Rockhounds/Rockhounds.shtml