KILAUEA VOLCANO ERUPTS AND 9/11

The past ten days or so have mostly focused on our Pride of America cruise throughout the Hawaiian Islands.  So let me continue with one more travel item:  Kilauea Volcano began erupting last night, which was already September 11 for much of the USA, so come to the Big Island of Hawaii.  You can land in Hilo or Kona and drive to this natural attraction, although it's closer from Hilo.  But you ask, how long will this lava activity continue?  Well,it was sort of doing something only 22 days ago.  But it's hard to believe that there has been some continuing activity for the past 40 years or so.

I had recently returned from working in the U.S. Senate for three years.  As we normally did in those days, we spent the New Year period with her family in Hilo.  So on January 3, 1983, I was golfing at the Volcano Golf Course.  The ground shook and there was a strange rumbling sound.  Soon thereafter, only a few thousand yards away, we saw a volcanic fountain.  This was the beginning of the present Kiluaea eruption.  Since then, the outflow of lava has progressively moved downhill towards the Puna area.  However, Halemaumau Crater, located close by that first fountain, has been the source of the most recent activity.  This is the safe viewing spot, for you can stay at the Volcano House and just about see the night activity in the crater from your room.  

Here is a daytime photo I took when I happened to be there a few years ago.

I began this blog site on 30April2008, and was about to end it, when Kilauea again erupted, but in the Puna region, which went on to create havoc.

This blog site was created at the end of April 2008.  My plan was to continue this effort for a decade and move on to something else, so on 30 April 2018, I posted:

     MY FINAL DAILY BLOG

Well, on 3 May 2018 Kilauea Volcano erupted in the lower Puna region.  So the next day my blog site came back to life with:

PUNA AGAIN BECOMES THE MOST DANGEROUS SPOT ON EARTH

I felt compelled to report on this natural disaster because much of my life has been linked to geothermal energy and volcanic eruptions.  From that posting:

It was on 3January1983 that Kilauea Volcano first erupted.  I just happened to be golfing at the Volcano Golf Course that day, when, on the tenth hole we felt the ground shudder:

Soon thereafter, we saw fountains of lava a couple of hundred feet high only a few thousand yards from where we stood.  This was the beginning of the current Kilauea eruption, which has now continuously gone on for three decades PLUS FIVE YEARS AND FOUR MONTHS.

Thus, this eruption has now been ongoing for 35 years and four months.  As of today, almost exactly 36 years and one month.  But a decade before that, my very first research project at the University of Hawaii was on geothermal energy.  Again to quote:

In the 1970's I suffered from numerous mosquito bites while I helped explore for and succeeded in tapping geothermal energy in Puna:

While I was the reservoir engineer in the mid-1970's with UH-Hilo Professor Bill Chen on HGP-A, one of the only examples of anything renewable in Hawaii that actually worked the first time, my interest was more on the total product potential, as I helped get started the Community Geothermal Technology Program, also known as Noi'i O Puna (NOP), or the geothermal equivalent of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority for OTEC on the other side of the island. 

Further:

By August 7 of last year: (which was five years ago as I write this today, 11September2023)

• land covered by lava:  13.7 square miles
• new land created in the ocean:  875 acres
• homes destroyed:  716
• recovery cost:  more than $800 million

So bringing the history up to today, 40 years, 8 months and 8 days since my golf outing, the lava is no longer causing any damages, but with this eruption, you never know where it will break out, from the ridge at Halemaumau to the town of Pahoa  What it did in 2018, though, was inspire me to continue with this blog site, now in my 16th year.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  You know how long this is?  Remember when you started kindergarten?  Now follow your life as you graduated from high school and went to college.  You would be very close to graduating.  However, while in school you had weekends and holidays and summers.  I have posted a blog every day for more than 15 years.

September 11, today, is memorable for two cataclysms.  What is known as 9/11 occurred in 2001, 22 years ago.

My wife woke me up just after 3AM (Hawaii time), for she was somehow watching what was unfolding.  I glanced at the TV screen, and this is just about what I first saw, Flight 175 crashing into the south face of the South Tower of the World Trade Center at 9:03 EDT.  One thought occurred to me that we had enjoyed dinner in Cellar in the Sky, a restaurant within Windows of the World, at the top of the North Tower.  We were glued to the screen in bed until almost noon (Hawaii time) that day.

An earlier 9/11 had occurred nine years earlier in 1992.  

• It began with Tropical Depression 18-E in the Pacific on September 5.  
• On the 7th, my brother and his wife joined us in Eugene, Oregon, when we saw Hawaii beat Oregon 24-21.  Unfortunately, Hawaii returns to Eugene this coming weekend, and the last time Oregon played a football game at home, they beat Portland State 81-7.
• On the 7th, that depression became Tropical Storm Iniki, attaining hurricane strength on September 9.
• 
  Our next stop was a drive to Colorado Springs to see Hawaii play the Air Force Academy.  On September 10, we stopped off in Salt Lake City.  Turned on the motel TV and saw Iniki approaching  what looked like Honolulu.

• 
  Well, on September 11, Hurricane Iniki made landfall over Kauai at 145 MPH, although gusts of up to 227 MPH were also recorded.
• Caused $3 billion (worth $6 billion today) in damages.
• I end on a positive note:  Hawaii beat Air Force 6-3.  Only three field goals were scored.

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