Posts: 6,214
Threads: 354
Joined: Feb 2006
Our Guest got a note that Halema`uma`u was at one of the highest levels.... and it does look pretty high tonight...but the update today doesn't mention it...anyone else hear anything???
Current image of the crater:
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/cams/panorama.php?cam=HMcam
Current Thermal:
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/cams/panorama.php?cam=HTcam
Posts: 1,679
Threads: 203
Joined: Dec 2005
I think the last I heard, it was only 32 meters below the rim.
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/multimedia/?display=default
Royall
Hale O Na Mea Pa`ani
Posts: 3,188
Threads: 216
Joined: Sep 2007
Reading the local news this last week or so - Pele has plenty to be angry about......imho
Posts: 1,930
Threads: 71
Joined: Jun 2012
The Staradvertiser had a headline that an explosive eruption might be ahead:
http://www.staradvertiser.com/multimedia/photo_galleries/viewer/?galID=175051721&galID=175051721
Chances of explosive eruption rise as Kilauea rumbles
Bigislandvideonews has some footage from last weekend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qecKGkUOaKc
Kilauea Volcano lava lake reaches highest level
This is supposed to be a recent video of lava making it to the ocean, apparently from Pu'u O'o:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MmXYwq6BV_Q
Footage Lava Enters the Pacific Ocean in Hawaii
There is speculation that a blockage is related to both. Fireworks ahead?
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*
Posts: 2,979
Threads: 177
Joined: Aug 2006
Hanohano Pele! A fiery, angry, and potentially explosive goddess. She scares me so but I love being near her! That's because there is something terribly wrong with me, you and everyone who lives here. I can't imagine what could have put her in such an agitated state. Okay, just joking. I know exactly what put her in this agitated state. I have a theory about Pele, which I hereby copyright as intellectual property, and it goes something like this. You know how they have to go out looking for the baby that is the new Dalai Lama when the old one dies? And that baby is pre-selected? Similarly, I believe there is one person in Puna who Pele has selected to express her emotions in human form, and in a human way. Conversely, the emotions of that person are channeled......through the volcano.
We don't know who that person is and neither does that person. Is she you? Is she me? Is she him? Consequently, it is very important that we all treat one another with extra grace, with kindness and aloha. Okay, I made that last part up. You can do that and it is a good idea, but it won't satisfy Pele. She has a temper and is a swirling cauldron of emotions, and I mean that most respectfully. Something set her off. And once that happens, well, you can't unring the bell. There is no forgiveness. There is just cold and hot. Molten or cold, sharp, flesh-ripping shards.
She is beautiful, and all the more alluring because she is fearsome. But then, what man would want a goddess that doesn't petrify him? Maybe someone will explain that to me. That might not be the healthiest approach to worship. I don't know, are there kindly goddesses? Why would anyone want such a thing? Anyway, I don't think she wants to be fearsome. I think she wants to slumber in the arms of her lover. But she needs a man to match the mountain -- a truly extraordinary guy with Kevlar underwear and a taste for conquest. As few such guys exist, she tends to just make them. They turn into supermen! And then she turns them into bushes, flower, plants, trees, mulch.
Anyway, the question now is will she blow? That's all I wanna know. I think she might, in a safe and sane, Fourth of July fireworks kind of way. In any case, as I have been saying, I have really, really, really been wanting to go to the top, to, the summit for the last few weeks, to look down on her and commune with her. And, you know, maybe I will make a wish and throw it into the world's largest wishing well, as I stand beneath the blaze of the milky way, the purple of the night sky and the crimson of her plume.
I like to go around midnight. Maybe Monday, from the Kona side. We will see what happens after that. Probably something mythical and stranger than fiction.
Posts: 2,979
Threads: 177
Joined: Aug 2006
Went by. Nothing really seemed that unusual except the number of onlookers. A lot of those. Nothing mythical happened.
Posts: 20
Threads: 0
Joined: Oct 2012
I haven't spoken much of this.
I was the only person on earth present when the Queen's Bath filled with lava. I had watched everyone leave after darkness fell. Evening became cool, I was thirsty and hungry. Pele was there. I stayed until daybreak. The lava reached the sea.
I was on the upper slope of Mauna Loa in a remote lava tube. There was white powder and fragile, hardened blood-red lava like Chinese jade sculpture. I felt her presence, and I talked to her.
I was in Kalapana while the painted church was being moved. Unplanned, I spent the day on the lava flows with Maurice and Katia Krafft, and another volcanologist, Vivianne. All 3 later died at volcanos; Maurice and Katia in Japan, and Vivianne in Indonesia.
Posts: 1,930
Threads: 71
Joined: Jun 2012
quote:
Originally posted by konabish
I haven't spoken much of this.
I was the only person on earth present when the Queen's Bath filled with lava. I had watched everyone leave after darkness fell. Evening became cool, I was thirsty and hungry. Pele was there. I stayed until daybreak. The lava reached the sea.
I was on the upper slope of Mauna Loa in a remote lava tube. There was white powder and fragile, hardened blood-red lava like Chinese jade sculpture. I felt her presence, and I talked to her.
I was in Kalapana while the painted church was being moved. Unplanned, I spent the day on the lava flows with Maurice and Katia Krafft, and another volcanologist, Vivianne. All 3 later died at volcanos; Maurice and Katia in Japan, and Vivianne in Indonesia.
That is pretty heavy and shows how dangerous vulcanology can be. This is a very recent awesome photograph. It almost looks like little continents tearing away from each other.
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/wp-con...anoBIG.jpg
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*
Posts: 2,979
Threads: 177
Joined: Aug 2006
Thank you for sharing your vivid and profound memories, Konabish. I was recently told about Queen's Bath and how beautiful that area was. Since i never knew it, I didn't experience the pang of loss. I imagine it would be easy to feel Pele's presence in such a destructive episode, as she literally takes a bath in front of you.
I saw a fascinating documentary on the Kraffts, who perished in a pyroclastic flow. Those two really liked playing with fire, in a way that was both a little pathological and explorative. Curiosity killed the cat, I guess, but here's to those who go to extremes, and grab the world by the scruff of the neck and drink it down deeply and love it to death, as someone said.
I am trying to imagine the Kraffts explaining to, say, a psychologist their fascination with fire. What happens when we "fix" people like that and give them just the right chemicals to moderate their behavior? Would Van Gogh be able to drag us through turbulent indigo, or would he look at a field, a town or a sky and wonder why anyone would bother to paint such unremarkable things?
Would the Kraffts have been driven to document their dance with fire?
Do we imbue these inanimate objects. ---these cornfields, these molten mountainsides-- with more life than they actually have, perhaps because our own spirit cannot be contained and must, like Pele, flow out on to something, vivify it and claim it?
She is rustling and unhappy about something. . I know that much. I do not know what will happen. But I do believe she exists, that some women are volcanoes and that some volcanoes are women. This one is cruel, impulsive, brusque, beautiful and when she wants a bath she just takes it--literally takes it. And because she is so hot the water in the bath seems strangely, supernaturally chilly in comparison.
That's fine. Again, I like my goddesses fiery. I think the Kraffts would agree with me on that. I like goddesses who are torn between destroying you and letting you live so you can worship them.....or set them aflame. When you live in the domain of such a goddess, though, it always ends the same way. But before you are incinerated, like the Kraffts, you won't just see stars--you will see brilliant searing oversized orbs so close you can touch them.
Haina mai kapuana. Hanohano o Pele. Kelena--kuli!!.
Posts: 3,188
Threads: 216
Joined: Sep 2007
Hawaiian Mythology by Beckwith
A really good Pele overview and documentation of the migration of belief system and peoples across the Pacific - great read the museum store has copies in stock as well as amazon.
Kind of presents Pele as a fiery lady with issues that was relegated to this one and only volcano - after much searching.
According to the Beckwith narrative Many of the men Pele consumed were happy in prior relation ships - many of the legends focus on the mortal love between two characters ripped apart by an envious Pele - its not all about passion - sometimes its about ownership and envy..... grin
You will also find a unique Adam and Eve parable - included in the book to ensure funding during a very christian centered time here on Island imho - fun read
...............
|
