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| Hawai`i's Midway Island, now a war memorial and wildlife refuge, was mentioned by Pres. Donald Trump on Thursday, when he praised the aircraft carriers and the crew that fought there during World War II. Trump promised more aircraft carriers for the Navy and to spend billions of dollars to build up the military. See story below. Image from www.Midway-Island.com |
Sen. Mazie Hirono weighed in on Tuesday evening: "Just three weeks into Trump’s presidency, National Security Advisor Michael Flynn resigned due to illicit contact with Russia. Now, new information shows Attorney General Jeff Sessions met with the Russian ambassador twice before the election and did not disclose these contacts while under oath at his confirmation hearing.
"Not one -- but two -- of Trump’s most trusted advisors are now known to have met with and misled the public about their meetings with Russia. And my fear is this may just be the tip of the iceberg.
"Join me in calling for an independent investigation of the Trump administration’s ties with the Russian government.
"When the security of our country and the integrity of our democracy are at stake, the President and his administration must be held accountable. I pledge to do that every day, but I need your help. Sign on and support an independent investigation into the administration’s ties with Russia now," urged Hirono.
To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see Facebook. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter.
WHILE HAWAI`I'S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION PROMOTES PEACEMAKING AND INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY and warns of fear fanning the kind of discrimination against minorities that happened in World War II, Pres. Donald Trump on Thursday, brought up Hawai`i as he promised to spend billions of dollars on readiness for war.
Edible Gardening & Landscaping in the Rainforest, Sat, Mar 4, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Volcano Art Center. Zach Mermel presents this two-part workshop for all gardening & landscaping enthusiasts. $50/$5 VAC members plus $10 material fee. 967-8222
Hawaiian Cordage Workshops, Tue, Mar 7/28, 1 – 4 p.m., Volcano Art Center.
With Gary Eoff. 967-8222
Unforeseen Consequences of Sandalwood Trade, Tue, Mar 7, 7 p.m., Kīlauea Visitor Center Auditorium in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Paul Field, park volunteer and retired professor of History at Windward Community College, discusses how the sandalwood trade impacted relations between commoners and chiefs, altered the concept of mana and led to the first official interference of the U.S. government in affairs of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Free; park entrance fees apply.
WHILE HAWAI`I'S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION PROMOTES PEACEMAKING AND INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY and warns of fear fanning the kind of discrimination against minorities that happened in World War II, Pres. Donald Trump on Thursday, brought up Hawai`i as he promised to spend billions of dollars on readiness for war.
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| Pres. Donald Trump harkened back to World War II and the Battle of Midway on Thursday when promising to spend billions of dollars on building up the military. He praised the Yorktown, Enterprise and Hornet aircraft carriers and crew. |
The President spoke on the Mainland at the construction site of a new $10.44 billion Navy aircraft carrier named the USS Gerald R. Ford, to be commissioned this summer. Trump used the occasion to announce his plans to spend many billions of dollars in building up the U.S. military, including expanding the number of aircraft carriers to a dozen.
Harkening back to the way countries conducted war and peace 75 years ago during World War II, Trump mentioned Admiral Chester Nimitz, "the great admiral Nimitz" who commanded the Pacific Fleet. Trump quoted Nimitz saying, "It is the function of the Navy to carry the war to the enemy so it will not be fought on U.S. soil." Trump also brought up the Battle of Midway in the Northern Hawaiian Islands, now a wildlife refuge and memorial. Trump praised the three aircraft carriers and crew who fought there in WWII on the Enterprise, Yorktown and Horn. Trump noted that the ships were built by the same company that is constructing the USS Ford. Trump emphasized that additional carriers are now needed to strengthen the Navy.
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| Trump brought up Admiral Nimitz saying, "It is the function of the Navy is to carry the war to the enemy so it will not be fought on U.S. soil." |
Pres. Gerald's Ford's own words about an aircraft carrier named after Nimitz were read during Trump's appearance, as also appropriate for the USS Gerald Ford: "I see this great ship as a symbol of the United States, of our immense resources, and skilled workers and our boundless energy and our military strength. Wherever this ship flies her flag, she will be a symbol of Unites States' strength. Made in America and operated by Americans, whether her mission is one of defense, diplomacy or humanity, this aircraft carrier will command awe and admiration from some, caution from others and respect from all."
Trump added, "America sailors are the best war fighting sailors anywhere in the world and it isn't not even close." He talked about the "great rebuilding of our military might...We will give the men and women of America's Armed Services the resources you need to keep us safe. We will have the finest equipment in the world, planes, ships and everything else." He promised the military "the tools you need to prevent war and, if required, to fight war and only do one thing, Win! Win!"
He described the USS Ford as "four and a half acres of combat power and sovereign U.S. territory, the likes of which there is nothing to compete. There is no competition to this ship." He called it "a monument to American might that will provide the strength necessary to insure peace." He noted that the ship will carry 4,500 personnel and 70 aircraft." Trump said it "will "project American power in distant lands. Hopefully it's power we don't have to use, but if we do, there is big, big trouble."
Trump said that he has asked Congress to eliminate the sequester on the Department of Defense and for Congress to support the "great rebuilding of the United States military and the United States Navy." He said he is calling for "one of the largest Defense spending increases in history." Trump said the Navy is the smallest it's been since World War I. "Don't worry, it's going to be the largest."
To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see Facebook. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter.
A PULSING MAGMA SUPPLY IS DETECTED at Kīlauea. This is the focus of this week's Volcano Watch by scientists at Hawaiian Volcano Observatory: This is the story of how a new concept—slowly pulsing magma supply to Kīlauea—emerged from observations of the Overlook Lava Lake in Halemaʻumaʻu.
"Every weekday volcanic ash is collected from ten buckets near the lava lake. Gas bubbles in the lake pop, and pieces of the skin—such as Pele's hair and tears—fly into the air, and the buckets catch them. The ash is weighed, and an ash accumulation rate is calculated—how many grams of ash fall into the buckets per hour.
"Every weekday volcanic ash is collected from ten buckets near the lava lake. Gas bubbles in the lake pop, and pieces of the skin—such as Pele's hair and tears—fly into the air, and the buckets catch them. The ash is weighed, and an ash accumulation rate is calculated—how many grams of ash fall into the buckets per hour.
"Bubbles are almost always breaking—a process called spattering—but the rate at which ash accumulates in the buckets varies. There are several reasons for this—wind direction, locations of spattering, depth to the lava lake, and more. But, when averaged over a month, such short-term effects tend to cancel, and we see month-to-month variation, with peaks and troughs in ash accumulation lasting several months each. Does this relate to anything else that we can measure?
"Yes. Almost daily, we measure the depth to the lake surface with a laser rangefinder. Lake level rises during summit inflation and drops during deflation. Such changes typically last a day or two, sometimes longer, but not for a month.
"It turns out that the average monthly lake level and the monthly accumulation of ash track each other. Over a several-month period, lake level and ash accumulation may rise, peak, and fall off. More ash falls in the buckets when lava level is high than when it is low. The closer bubbles are to the buckets, the more ash. Simple.
"But why does the monthly average lake level change over periods of several months? We think we've found an answer—a pulsing rate of magma supply to the shallow storage reservoir under the caldera.
"Generally, magma supply to Kīlauea is considered to be pretty steady. For 3-4 years about a decade ago, the magma supply rate was higher than it is today. This was a long-term change and stood out by its magnitude and duration.
"But now, the rising and falling lava lake over periods lasting only several months suggests a shorter-term variation in the supply rate. How can we check this idea?
"GPS instruments at Kīlauea summit measure elevation change. Close examination of the GPS data, again averaged over month-long periods to minimize short-term effects, shows good correspondence with lake level. Rising lake level indicates faster summit uplift, and dropping lake level slower uplift.
"The simplest explanation for all this is that the rate of magma supply is slowly pulsing over periods of several months. It isn't simply a question of transferring magma from one place in the summit to another, like robbing Peter to pay Paul. The entire summit goes up or down, seemingly reflecting waxing and waning of the magma supply rate to the entire summit reservoir. Only once, in 2012, did the southern part of the reservoir go down when the northern went up—the Peter-Paul effect.
"We've identified about a dozen pulses since the Halemaʻumaʻu eruption began in 2008. The pulses may be driven by changes in the rate of melting in the mantle or be induced during transport upward from the mantle to the shallow storage reservoir, an 80-100-km (50-60 mile) distance.
"Without the lava lake and its precisely measured level, we probably wouldn't have detected a pulsing supply rate. And, the only reason that we looked at lake level at this scale was to explain the monthly changes in ash accumulation. Research is full of surprises, and seemingly minor observations can have major ramifications, concludes the writers of Volcano Watch.
"Yes. Almost daily, we measure the depth to the lake surface with a laser rangefinder. Lake level rises during summit inflation and drops during deflation. Such changes typically last a day or two, sometimes longer, but not for a month.
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| A Valentine's Day 2017 view of Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake, here the surface of the lake is about 21 m (69 ft) below the vent rim.The lake diameter is about 255 m or 840 ft. Careful tracking of the amount of ash emitted by lake processes suggest an important new into the supply of magma to Kīlauea's summit. USGS Photo |
"But why does the monthly average lake level change over periods of several months? We think we've found an answer—a pulsing rate of magma supply to the shallow storage reservoir under the caldera.
"Generally, magma supply to Kīlauea is considered to be pretty steady. For 3-4 years about a decade ago, the magma supply rate was higher than it is today. This was a long-term change and stood out by its magnitude and duration.
"But now, the rising and falling lava lake over periods lasting only several months suggests a shorter-term variation in the supply rate. How can we check this idea?
"GPS instruments at Kīlauea summit measure elevation change. Close examination of the GPS data, again averaged over month-long periods to minimize short-term effects, shows good correspondence with lake level. Rising lake level indicates faster summit uplift, and dropping lake level slower uplift.
"The simplest explanation for all this is that the rate of magma supply is slowly pulsing over periods of several months. It isn't simply a question of transferring magma from one place in the summit to another, like robbing Peter to pay Paul. The entire summit goes up or down, seemingly reflecting waxing and waning of the magma supply rate to the entire summit reservoir. Only once, in 2012, did the southern part of the reservoir go down when the northern went up—the Peter-Paul effect.
"We've identified about a dozen pulses since the Halemaʻumaʻu eruption began in 2008. The pulses may be driven by changes in the rate of melting in the mantle or be induced during transport upward from the mantle to the shallow storage reservoir, an 80-100-km (50-60 mile) distance.
"Without the lava lake and its precisely measured level, we probably wouldn't have detected a pulsing supply rate. And, the only reason that we looked at lake level at this scale was to explain the monthly changes in ash accumulation. Research is full of surprises, and seemingly minor observations can have major ramifications, concludes the writers of Volcano Watch.
To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see Facebook. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter.
Stewardship at the Summit, Fri, Mar 3, 10, 18, 25 & 31; 9 a.m. – 12 p.m., Kīlauea Visitor Center in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. Volunteers clear ginger from park trails. Free; park entrance fees apply. nps.gov/havo.
Girl’s Day Doll Craft, Fri, Mar 3, 2 – 3 p.m., Kahuku Park. Ages 6 – 12.
Register Mar 1/2. 929-9113.
Edible Gardening & Landscaping in the Rainforest, Sat, Mar 4, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Volcano Art Center. Zach Mermel presents this two-part workshop for all gardening & landscaping enthusiasts. $50/$5 VAC members plus $10 material fee. 967-8222
Hawaiian Cordage Workshops, Tue, Mar 7/28, 1 – 4 p.m., Volcano Art Center.
With Gary Eoff. 967-8222
Unforeseen Consequences of Sandalwood Trade, Tue, Mar 7, 7 p.m., Kīlauea Visitor Center Auditorium in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Paul Field, park volunteer and retired professor of History at Windward Community College, discusses how the sandalwood trade impacted relations between commoners and chiefs, altered the concept of mana and led to the first official interference of the U.S. government in affairs of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Free; park entrance fees apply.
