Ka`u Calendar News Briefs Friday, Dec. 11, 2015

      The team is also conducting assessments of aquatic habitats such as containers that may be producing most of the mosquitoes in and around buildings in areas where confirmed dengue cases have been reported.
      In a DOH video edited and posted by Big Island Video News, CDC entomologist Ryan Hemme said mosquitoes are attracted to black traps. Because mosquitoes are attracted to black, leaving abandoned tires outside where they collect water creates an ideal breeding ground.
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PACK YOUR MOSQUITO REPELLENT is advice HuffPost Hawai`i is giving travelers to Hawai`i this winter. According to Associate Editor Chris D’Angelo, the Big Island’s current outbreak of dengue fever is now the largest episode in the state since the 1940s. 

      D’Angelo quotes Dr. Lyle Petersen, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases: “We must be prepared for the long run.”
      State epidemiologist Sarah Park told D’Angelo that she’s optimistic the outbreak can be stopped if everyone works together. 

      “I’m certainly hopeful that the trickle (of cases) will slow or stop sooner than later,” she said.
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HAWAIIAN VOLCANO OBSERVATORY scientist clarify common terms in the current issue of Volcano Watch, entitled, What is a Volcano?
      “Many readers know that the Island of Hawai`i is made of five volcanoes – Kilauea, Mauna Loa, Hualalai, Mauna Kea and Kohala,” the article states. “Those same readers know that such obvious features as the cones that dot Mauna Kea, the Hala`i Hills and Kulani Cone on Mauna Loa, and Kapoho Cone, Pu`u `O`o, and Mauna Ulu on Kilauea are places where eruptions took place. If that’s the case, then why aren’t they called volcanoes? Isn’t a volcano a place where lava reaches the surface of the earth? Why doesn’t the island have hundreds of volcanoes instead of only five?
      “In one dictionary definition, a volcano is a vent or opening in the earth’s crust through which rock or lava is ejected. In another, a volcano is a cone-shaped hill or mountain built around a vent. Most volcanologists disagree with both of these definitions.
      “To a volcanologist, a volcano is a structure containing a vent or cluster of vents fed by magma rising directly from great depth within the Earth, generally more than 30 kilometers (18 miles) and in Hawai`i about 100 km (60 mi). Each of the five volcanoes on the Island of Hawai`i has such a deeply rooted feeder conduit.

      “In contrast, all of the cones mentioned above, and most others on the island, are supplied by magma that branched off the main conduit at a shallow depth, probably less than 10 km (6 mi) deep and more likely, less than half that. These cones are analogous to limbs on a tree, and the deeply rooted volcano is equivalent to the trunk of the tree.

      “If we could plug the deep conduit to Kilauea, the entire volcano, including Pu`u `O`o, would die. In reality, however, Kilauea will remain active long after Pu`u `O`o stops erupting, because the main feeder conduit will still be intact.
      “Several terms are used to describe the vents that lack deep roots and get their magma from the main feeder conduit – flank vents, parasitic vents and rift vents. Sometimes ‘cone’ is substituted for ‘vent.’ So, for example, on Mauna Loa, Kulani Cone could be termed a flank vent and the Hala`i Hills parasitic cones. Pu`u `O’o is an active flank or rift vent on Kilauea.
      “Physical appearance cannot be used to make the distinction between a volcano and a subsidiary vent on that volcano. Lacking geophysical evidence, it would be nearly impossible to know, for example, that Pu`u `O`o is fed from shallow, not great, depth. With that evidence, though, a clear distinction can be made.
      “The second dictionary definition of ‘volcano’ – a cone-shaped hill or mountain built around a vent – does not account for volcanoes such as Kilauea, whose shape is far from that of a cone. Another type of volcano lacking a cone shape is a large caldera, such as Long Valley in eastern California or Yellowstone in Wyoming. No one would guess, without doing some geologic sleuthing, that these wide shallow depressions are volcanoes. 

      “Visitors to Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park often remark that Kilauea Crater (the official name of the summit caldera) ‘sure doesn’t look like a volcano.’ Even visitors trained in geology make that comment, because the image of Mount Fuji in Japan or Mayon in Indonesia is strongly entrenched as the stereotype of a ‘real’ volcano.
      “Had these visitors come to the summit of Kilauea in 1400 CE, however, they would have seen a lava shield rather than a caldera. The caldera formed by collapse of the shield about 100 years later.
      “This illustrates another point about volcanoes – the shape can change drastically and quickly, and one year’s cone or shield can be next year’s caldera. So, shape is an unimportant and even misleading basis for defining a volcano.
      “Finally, the distinction between a caldera, such as Kilauea’s, and a crater, such as Halema`uma`u, is both arbitrary and meaningful. A caldera is a depression more than 1.6 km (one mi) in diameter, and a crater is smaller. Pretty arbitrary! A more important distinction is that a Hawaiian caldera forms by collapse of the volcano’s summit and has deep roots, whereas a crater, no matter where it forms, has shallow roots. In a perfect world, the term Kilauea Crater on maps would be replaced by Kilauea Caldera.”
      See hvo.wr.usgs.gov.
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FEED THE NEED every Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Ocean View Community Center. Rod Ducosin and Kealoha Martin share the love in the food they make for these hot meals. Bring a can, have a meal. Everyone is welcome.
      Volunteers are needed, and donations are accepted c/o OVCC.

I OLA NA `AINA MOMONA’S Holiday Open House is this evening at Pahala Plantation House from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
      For more information, call Malian at 503-575-9098.

  

PARTICIPANTS LEARN SOMETHING NEW or work on a forgotten project at the Art Express Painting Workshop tomorrow from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Discovery Harbour Community Hall. Cost is two cans of food per person. Register at himeliha@yahoo.com.

KAHUKU UNIT OF HAWAI`I VOLCANOES National Park offers free programs this weekend.
      Participants discover the Hawaiian goddesses Hi`iaka & Pele and the natural phenomena they represent on a moderate one-mile walk tomorrow from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.
      On Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., a guided, 2.5-mile, moderately difficult hike over rugged terrain focuses on the area’s human history.

FRIENDS OF HAWAI`I VOLCANOES National Park explore Kipukapuaulu and have picnic lunch with Executive Director Elizabeth Fien Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The 1.2-mile loop trail reveals a story of struggle and survival for some of Hawai`i’s rarest plants. Free for Friends members; non-members can join in order to attend.
      Register at 985-7373 or fhvnp.org.

PAHALA CHRISTMAS PARADE is Sunday at 1 p.m. with floats, walking groups, tractors and classic cars, choirs, public officials, schools and more. Participants wind their way through the village from the armory to the hospital and to Holy Rosary Church for refreshments. Everyone is welcome. 

      For more information, call 928-0808.