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Thursday, September 12, 2024

Kaʻū News Briefs Sept. 12, 2024

Hawai'i Kūpuna Hula Festival welcomed talent from Kaʻū this week in Kona. Photo from County of Hawai'i

Kūpuna Kane Hula at the festival. Photo from County of Hawai'i
DANCERS FROM KAʻŪ HEADED TO THE HAWAI'I KUPUNA HULA FESTIVAL in Kona this week. They performed solo and competed on Wednesday and Thursday at Outrigger Kona Resort & Spa. They joined 12 hālau, with 275 participants from Hawai'i Island, Moloka'i and the State of Washington, to come together, take the stage and celebrate hula.
    "What an opportunity," said Linda Elves, a festival participant from Ocean View. "What an opportunity to share our mele, our song, with all the people who come."
    The theme of this year's festival is Na Manu O Hawai'i – Our Native Birds of Hawai'i.
  The event was sponsored by the County of Hawai'i Department of Parks & Recreation's Elderly Activities Division. It was the 39th Kūpuna Hula Festival and the first since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    "We are so excited to revive the Kūpuna Hula Festival after a three-year hiatus," said Mayor Mitch Roth. "So many of these kūpuna have been instrumental in preserving and teaching these significant cultural traditions to younger generations. Their dedication to perpetuating hula and Hawaiian values ensures that our rich heritage continues to thrive, not just for today, but for future generations as well. It is a privilege to honor them and celebrate the wisdom and aloha they share with our community."
    The festival included a craft fair with vendors selling Hawaiian apparel, jewelry, artwork, and more.

This week's Kūpuna Hula Festival was the first since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Photo from County of Hawai'i

 To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar. See upcoming events, print edition and archive at kaunews.com. Support this news service with advertising at kaunews.com. 7,500 copies in the mail and on stands.

Photos by Kamamalu Kauwe

KAʻŪ BEAT PĀHOA IN GIRLS VARSITY VOLLEYBALL ON WEDNESDAY IN FIVE SETS OF GRUELING PLAY. Pāhoa's cheerleaders came to the game and kept their fans entertained as both teams kept the ball in the air with many saves. 
    Nevertheless, Kaʻū prevailed. Coach Joshua Ortega reported:
In JV play Kaʻū won 25-23 and 25-19.
In Varsity the set scores were 25-19, 25-27, 19-25, 28-26 and 15-8.
Alajshae Barrios made 10 Kills and 2 Aces.
Jezeire Rose Nurial-Dacalio came up with 9 Kills and 1 Block.
Zia Rae Wroblewski achieved 7 Kills , 3 Aces and 4 Blocks.
Leahi Kaupu scored with 8 Kills and 2 Aces.
McKenzie Decoito executed 4 Kills and 2 Aces.
Kiara Ortega-Oliveira brought home 3 Kills and 5 Aces
CaLiyah Silva-Kamei contributed 2 Aces.
Aubrey Delos Santos-Graig nailed 2 Kills.
Photos by Kamamalu Kauwe

To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar. See upcoming events, print edition and archive at kaunews.com. Support this news service with advertising at kaunews.com. 7,500 copies in the mail and on stands.

RECENT INTRUSIONS FOLLOW PREVIOUS EVENTS PATTERN. That is the subject of this week's Volcano Watch, written by USGS scientists and affiliates:
    Since July 2024 activity, at Kīlauea has been punctuated by two periods of intense unrest, centered on the upper East Rift Zone (ERZ). The periods included hundreds of earthquakes per day and high rates of tilting in the upper ERZ. Monitoring data have shown that the unrest was the result of two intrusions into a region of the ERZ between Pauahi and Makaopuhi Craters.

Color map showing deformation and earthquakes on volcano

    This is not the first time these areas have experienced intrusions, two similar events occurred in 2007 and 2011, during the era of the Puʻuʻōʻō eruption. An intrusion is an injection of magma into rock, that causes ground deformation and seismicity but does not result in an eruption.
    The 2007 Father's Day intrusion occurred in the ERZ, in a very similar location to the recent intrusions. In fact, the Father's Day event included a very small eruption; but the majority of the magma transferred
into the ERZ did not erupt, so it is more often remembered as an intrusion. This event did not fundamentally change the eruptive vent at Puʻuʻōʻō, which had been erupting since 1983; and kept doing so until 2018.
    In 2011, the Kamoamoa eruption occurred, also on the ERZ and geographically in between where the Father's Day intrusion happened and Puʻuʻōʻō, which was the active vent on the ERZ at the time. Kīlauea was also erupting in the form of a lava lake in Halemaʻumaʻu crater at the summit. Although the level of lava in the summit lake lowered due to the 2011 intrusion, the event did not dramatically alter the location or style of eruptions from Kīlauea.
    A couple things have changed since the last events on this part of the ERZ. Puʻuʻōʻō is no longer erupting; and much of the magma that had been stored in the rift was emptied out during the 2018 lower ERZ eruption. This means the rift is not as full as it was during the 2007 and 2011 eruptions. There has also been a vocabulary change for how we talk about this part of the rift.
Cracks led to closing of Chain of Craters Road sections in late August
 from seismicity and deformation from the push of. underground lava.
NPS photo
    Previously, the ERZ was divided into upper, middle, and lower sections. The "upper" section or UERZ is the segment that bends to the north and intersects with the caldera. The UERZ is unique in that there has not been measurable spreading across the rift. Instead, opening occurs on faults oriented at angles similar to the rift trace (generally, west-east trending); consistent with the direction of opening in the middle and lower ERZ. Because of this, USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) scientist Don Swanson suggested referring to the upper section as the "East Rift Connector," because it connects the "proper" east-trending part of the ERZ to the caldera. These days, you might see either term used, though they refer to the same structure.
    On July 22, 2024, a seismic swarm on the UERZ heralded a shift in activity away from the southern Kīlauea caldera region. The seismicity and deformation indicated that magma was pushing open an underground crack, oriented at an angle to the connector, but parallel to the main rift. That is, in a similar direction to the 2007 and 2011 events.
    Again, on August 20, seismicity in the UERZ and deformation again indicated an intrusion into a crack oriented at an angle to the UERZ but parallel to the main rift, but this time slightly to the north of the July intrusion.
    These intrusions have been accompanied by steady inflation of the middle ERZ that is ongoing as of September 2024. The center of inflation has moved around, indicating that the storage structure of the rift is not simple. However, all the locations have been up rift of Puʻuʻōʻō; so far, there has not been evidence of significant amounts of magma traveling past Puʻuʻōʻō and further down the rift.
    Given that the 2007 and 2011 intrusions had a limited effect on the Puʻuʻōʻō eruption, it is not clear

what these recent events might indicate for the future. However, following the 2018 eruptions, HVO worked to build out our monitoring instrument coverage on Kīlauea's ERZ, into areas that had previously been part of the active Puʻuʻōʻō flow field. We will continue to monitor these instruments closely for any sign of magma migration.

Volcano Activity Updates
    Kīlauea is not erupting. Its USGS Volcano Alert level is ADVISORY.
    Seismic activity and ground deformation continues at Kīlauea's summit and upper-to-middle East Rift Zone, at slightly reduced rates compared to the previous week. Over the past week, about 300 earthquakes were detected beneath Kīlauea's upper East Rift Zone and about 200 events were detected between Maunaulu and Puʻuʻōʻō in the middle portion of the East Rift Zone within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Over the past week, Kīlauea's summit and middle East Rift Zone continued to show overall slow inflation. Additional pulses of unrest in the upper to middle East Rift Zone are possible and may evolve quickly.
    Mauna Loa is not erupting. Its USGS Volcano Alert Level is at NORMAL. No earthquakes were reported felt in the Hawaiian Islands during the past week.
    HVO continues to closely monitor Kīlauea and Mauna Loa.

   To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar. See upcoming events, print edition and archive at kaunews.com. Support this news service with advertising at kaunews.com. 7,500 copies in the mail and on stands.



September 2024, 5,000 in the mail, 2,500 on the streets.