Mauna Loa, here I come!

My first trip to Mauna Loa started off at 6 am when Tyler, Jamal, Kelly and I left the lava house/dorm and headed down highway 11 to pick up Frank. We made it to Hilo a hour later and picked up coffee and bento's (to be explained later) from a Hawaiian fast food type joint. The only road to access Mauna Loa requires we drive from 4000' to sea level and then back up to 7000' in the saddle between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. Mauna Kea is the volcano almost directly north of Mauna Loa and is actually 100' taller above sea level. Mauna Loa is still the largest volcano in the world, however, because its roots and magma chamber are so massive that it causes the ocean crust to sag down about 5 km, adding overall height to the volcano.
The drive up was made in this early 90s, stripped down Tahoe with 3 gears. The last 3 hours of the drive was a tutorial for Kelly on how to drive up the Mauna Loa road without killing everyone in the car. Jamal and I have to learn stick shift before we can tackle this bad boy. Unfortunately for Tyler, Jamal and I, these 3 hours were passed bouncing around in the back seat like bobble head dolls and I swear at least five times my butt and thighs flew completely off the seat. Luckily, I was jammed between the boys and could just smash in to them instead of the window. We all experienced nausea on the ride up from the drastic elevation change and had to make multiple stops to hydrate, eat and "use the restroom"/hide behind a lava flow.


We finally made it to the top and it was gorgeous! Mauna Kea (in the background) has not erupted for 4000 years and is in the shield forming volcano stage, producing alkalic lava (less partial melt of the crust as the magma rises to the surface). Frank was able to point out all the lava flows on the flanks of both Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa by date and eruption styles. In the saddle between the two volcanoes is a military training facility and bombing space.


Once parked, we made the short but stressful (because of the elevation change) hike over to the rim of the caldera. My initial reaction upon finally seeing it is inappropriate for younger audiences. One of the two projects I will be working on is taking about a hundred GPS measurements from within the crater, which is covered with lava from the 1984 eruption. The caldera is about 2 km by 6 km and not as flat as it looks. There is a cabin on the opposite rim of the crater for camping out to maximize the data collected in one trip.

On to lunch! This is a Hawaiian style bento! Those of you familiar with Japanese cuisine know that a bento usually contains rice, meat and veggies. However, Hawaiians are HUGE fans of processed meats, tracking back to WWII and the invasion of SPAM in to their culture. The contents: one fried chicken leg, one tempura squash, one Portuguese sausage, teriyaki beef, corn beef hash (tan paddy), fish paddy (white with pink rim) and some random yellow veggie on a bed of rice. Basically fat and rice. I seriously doubt I will try eating it again but could not live here without experiencing it at least once.


Look! Snow in Hawaii! The greenish rock in front of the snow is pooled lava that was ejected from the crater during an explosive eruption. There are 5 types of explosive rocks and we spent about a hour learning them and their characteristics.


Check us out in our badass geology gear. Not sure why we are all standing around. The guy with his back to us is Frank - he avoided my camera all day.

Frank makes beer as one of his hobbies and he stated that whomever found the first gabbro (a rock type that forms in slow cooling magma chambers and then was ejected out) would get one of his beers. The race was on! I almost found the first one but then I saw a flash of teal and was cut off by Frank, giving Tyler the edge he needed to steal my glory. I complained and got Tyler's rock kicked out and Jamal ended up finding the first one. Above is a picture of the gabbro that was filled with olivine (green mineral) and made me giddy to sample.

Finally, me next to a cairn with clouds and Mauna Kea's west flank. We could see Maui before the cloud cover rolled in.