Permafrost on Mauna Kea is disappearing

[TomK]

A new report in Scientific American suggests that Mauna Kea's unique permafrost will soon disappear due to climate change. The summit region of Mauna Kea is the only known place in Hawaii where permafrost exists but those areas are becoming smaller.

"That’s not all. Near the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii’s tallest peak at nearly 14,000 feet, there’s another surprise: two patches of rare tropical permafrost, a type of continuously frozen soil most often associated with the frosty Arctic.

Mauna Kea is the only place in Hawaii where it’s known to occur — and it’s likely dying out. Surveys have found the patches are shrinking over time."

https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...-its-gone/

The article goes on to say:

"A few factors have allowed it to persist over the years. The permafrost patches are nestled in the cradle of two craters near the top of Mauna Kea, which help shade them from the sun. Snow, when it’s present, also reflects sunlight away.

Temperatures at the surface of the ground still tend to hover a few degrees above freezing. But because of some complex processes involving the placement of snow and ice as well as the way water melts and percolates through the top layers of the soil and transfers heat between the ground and the atmosphere, the soil tends to be colder underground than it is at the surface."

['elepaio]

Berry "cool" and revealing info. Lots of amazing reports coming out from trusted, non biased sources all over and i hope everyone here on on Punaweb pay attention to them. .. We definitely need to know about whats going on.

@TomK, whats your opinion on this climate change / permafrost topic?

Some say SA is just a tabloid these days and more focused on political and social flabor vs. peer to peer like it was.

IMO / .02, i think it boost the anti TMT folks. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Berry "cool" and revealing info. 

Yes, I agree.  Disappearing permafrost is another indication of Big Island warming, like the farmers in Waimea that I've talked to who now plant warmer weather varieties of vegetables.


Some say SA is just a tabloid these days 

Since it's generally considered a good source of information, who specifically says it's "just a tabloid?"


IMO / .02, i think it boost the anti TMT folks.

Why?
I would think that if Mauna Kea is changing, the permafrost is disappearing, it shows the mauna is changing and continues to change. That it will not always remain the same whether the change is a loss of permafrost or Native Hawaiians quarrying adze from the mountain for many years, leaving the mauna not sacred but scarred in that area. It's unfortunate a decommissioning of the quarry was never attempted so the mountain might return closer to it's natural state.
Perhaps the observatories are part of that change in the 21st century as the mauna, and humans continue to transform ourselves and the world around us.  Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the hotter.

[TomK]

I had a quick look through the scientific literature and found that the reduction of permafrost on Mauna Kea was already mentioned a few years ago in 2017. However, the recent study I cited suggests this warming is accelerating.

"Maunakea volcano on Hawaii Island is known for one of the most unusual occurrences of sporadic permafrost.
It was first documented in two cinder cone craters in the 1970’s near the summit of the mountain where mean
annual air temperatures are currently around +4 deg. Our study investigates the current state of this permafrost,
by acquiring multi-year ground temperature data and by applying electrical resistivity tomography and ground
penetrating radar techniques along several survey lines. Both of the previously known ice bodies still exist, but
one of them has dramatically shrunken in volume. [My bolding] Based on current warming trends it might disappear soon. In
addition insolation modelling, temperature probing, and geomorphological indicators were used to prospect for
additional permafrost bodies on the wider summit region, however, none was found. It seems that permafrost
preferentially appears in the interiors of cinder cones, even though there are exterior slopes that receive less
sunlight annually. We hypothesis that snow cover with its high albedo, and a layer of coarse boulders where
cold air settles in the pore space during calm nights, play a significant role in cooling the subsurface. Due to the
relatively simple setting, the study site is an ideal model system and may also serve as an analogue to Mars."


https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/...7-5866.pdf


Note that this was from an international geophysics conference so it certainly has a scientfic "flabor" and was certainly peer to peer.

[Wao nahele wahine]

'Note that this was from an international geophysics conference so it certainly has a scientfic "flabor" and was certainly peer to peer.'


flabor?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

This won't help the permafrost:

Global temperatures are likely to soar to record highs over the next five years, driven by human-caused warming and a climate pattern known as El Niño, forecasters at the World Meteorological said on Wednesday.

https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-re...five-years

El Niño also causes warmer ocean temperatures, which can produce more hurricanes.  But as long as you don't believe in something, it probably won't happen, right?

[leilanidude]

I wonder how the lake and permafrost are now after the record breaking winter storms and snowfall?

[AinaAKai]

We all know about Permafrost from Gold Rish. I think it is safe to say that this will greatly improve any gold mining activities on the mountain. Permafrost really has no redeaming value.

---

This won't help the permafrost:

Global temperatures are likely to soar to record highs over the next five years, driven by human-caused warming and a climate pattern known as El Niño, forecasters at the World Meteorological said on Wednesday.

https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-re...five-years

El Niño also causes warmer ocean temperatures, which can produce more hurricanes.  But as long as you don't believe in something, it probably won't happen, right?

But we all realize that there is nothing that we can do about this correct? Electric cars are really diesel cars on this island. China and India are really pumping out an extraordinary amount of carbons and they continue to build new coal fired plants every single month. They have exemptions due to being considered "developing nations". If America is carbon neutral, the amount of man made climate pollutants are still 27x higher than 1950 due to the rest of the world being so filthy. I think it is best if we all just quietly accept the future.

[MyManao]

I think it is best if we all just quietly accept the future.

I would argue otherwise, especially when we consider the consequences. But with a world population that is in large part illiterate, and under pressures of simply surviving, and most of those better off more concerned with their own gains rather than the wellbeing of the planet as a whole, I have to agree with you.

I think we, the affluent western societies, could change all that. But with a concerted effort to weaponize stupidity with all the anti-science crap the GOP spews, it's a losing battle. My only, personal, consolation being age, and the fact that I'll pass before too long. But woe to the poor idiots that gravitate to that orange moron and think they are free from concern because that fat slob says so.

['elepaio]

@AinaAKai, .. That's a perfect way to look at the EV ... Gonna use dat.

I want to see Saint Greta visit China and run her mouth there. LOL

@MyManao, how is YOUR B oy doing ? How can you have such visions and still be blind ?
How to change your mind bra ?

Most sincerely,
'e