Geology Department Hawaii Trip 2008

Aloha!  On this page you will find a small sampling of pictures from our January 2008 field trip to the Big Island.  We spent eight days exploring the island from top (the observatories on Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa) to bottom (black sand and green sand beaches).  Although we were never able to get close enough to view the active flows we did see an spectacular array of volcanic features including pristine aa and  pahoehoe flows, tree casts and spatter ramparts, Pele's hair and reticulite, cinder cones and littoral cones, and ultramafic xenoliths.  The students also participated in gravity surveys around Kilauea caldera.  In addition to studying geology we also visited a botanical garden, went snorkeling with sea turtles, and frequented Ken's House of Pancakes in Hilo.  Our trip was made possible in part by support from the Geology Department's Dan Johnson Field Research Fund.

Group photo at the Green Sand Beach

On the 1959 lava lake at Kilauea Iki

Liana & Ben with lava casts of trees

Inside the lava tube

Inspecting a fissure at Kilauea

Stone walls overrun by lava flows

Sea turtle at the City of Refuge

Tropical flora at the botanical garden

Buckled lava on the floor of Kilauea Iki

Measuring gravity with Al Eggers

The seniors

Don't forget to keep an eye on the waves

Five years of geology club tee-shirts

Tikis at the City of Refuge

Our contribution to the ceiling at Lulu's

    

This page is dedicated to the memory of Professor Stewart Lowther, friend, colleague, and co-leader of this trip.