Strategies for all faucets and taps at public educational facilities include daily flushing, using certified lead-free filters and turning the tap into a hand-washing only station, according to a DOE statement.
State Toxicologist Dr. Diana Felton said, "Our keiki are at the highest risk for health effects from lead exposure so this joint effort is important to ensure young students, teachers and parents can have peace of mind knowing their drinking water is safe."
VOLCANOES ARE HEAVY AND STRESSED OUT, say U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists and affiliates in this week's Volcano Watch: The three main causes for earthquakes here in Hawai'i are: Movement of magma under active volcanoes; sliding of volcanoes’ flanks along the surface that separates the ancient oceanic crust and overlying volcanoes; and bending or flexing of the
See https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/hawaiian-volcano-observatory/evolution-hawaiian-volcanoes |
Earth’s crust and upper mantle in response to the weight of the overlying volcanoes.
On July 5, a moderate magnitude-5.2 earthquake occurred approximately three miles off the north shore of the Island of Hawai‘i near Waipiʻo Valley at 17 miles (27 kilometers) below sea level. Shaking related to this earthquake was felt as far away as Kaua‘i. Two days later, another earthquake, this time a magnitude-4.2, occurred approximately 45 miles west-northwest of Kalaoa, on the west side of the Island of Hawai‘i. Both earthquakes were likely related to stress caused by the enormous weight of the Hawaiian volcanoes on the underlying crust and mantle.
What do we mean by ‘stress caused by the weight of the volcanoes’? As Hawaiian volcanoes erupt and grow, they add more and more weight to the Earth’s surface. This causes the Pacific Plate to flex downward, much like the bending caused by heavy books on an overloaded bookshelf. Some weight may just make the shelf bow, but a lot of weight may cause the shelf to start to splinter or break. Those breaks
are similar to what happens in tectonic plates if they bend too much.
The magnitude-5.2 and 4.2 earthquakes a couple of weeks ago are just two instances of earthquakes due to bending of the Pacific Plate. Earthquakes caused by this flexure can be quite large—some even greater than magnitude-6. Some additional past Hawaiian flexure earthquakes include the magnitude-6.8 Lāna‘i earthquake on February 19, 1871; magnitude-6.8 Maui earthquake on January 22, 1938; magnitude-5.2 O‘ahu earthquake on June 28, 1948; magnitude-6.2 Honomū earthquake on April 26, 1973; magnitude-6.7 Kīholo Bay and magnitude-6.1 Māhukona earthquakes on October 15, 2006; and magnitude-4.6 Hawaiian Ocean View earthquake on February 7, 2019. See https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/hawaiian-volcano-observatory/evolution-hawaiian-volcanoes
These earthquakes are deep, typically 25–40 km, within the uppermost brittle mantle underneath volcanoes and oceanic crust. As you can imagine, measuring stress building up within the Earth’s crust and upper mantle can be challenging. One type of measurement that scientists at the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) use to monitor and study motions from stress accumulation is Global Positioning System (GPS) data. GPS instruments receive signals from satellites and use the transmitted information to calculate how a specific point on the Earth’s surface moves throughout time.
HVO operates a network of over 65 scientific-grade GPS stations on the Island of Hawai‘i, which continuously measure their positions to a fraction of an inch. These stations are used to monitor and track extremely small movements at the Earth’s surface, including some displacements related to plate flexure stress.
To improve the scientific understanding of plate bending in the Hawaiian Islands, Dr. Jeff Freymueller, a researcher in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Michigan State University, in collaboration with University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, is in the process of installing approximately 7 new GPS sites on the Island of Hawai‘i, Moloka‘i, and Lāna‘i. These new sites are strategically placed to capture movement associated with plate bending and to test whether certain motions result from ongoing plate bending or from the dynamics of very deep magmatic systems beneath the volcanoes.
The first three GPS sites for this project were installed in May 2021, and the others will be installed in the coming months. Collecting years of data from these stations should help scientists to better understand these tiny but important motions of the Pacific Plate and how they relate to these deep, moderate-to-large flexure earthquakes in Hawai'i.
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Police seek this man in connection with thefts and property damage in Ocean View. |
Around 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 17, 2021, police were called to the 92-8600 block of Paradise Parkway in Ocean View, for a report of a man trespassing onto the property and causing damage to a window screen. The suspect reportedly left the area on a moped.
At approximately 2 a.m. the following morning, Sunday, July 18, police recovered a moped on Highway 11 near Tiki Lane in Ocean View that matched the description of the one leaving the Paradise Parkway scene. Police learned the moped had been stolen two months ago from a residence on Easement Road in the Ocean View Ranchos subdivision.
Investigators determined that a man riding the stolen moped had been at a Lotus Blossom Lane shopping complex in Ocean View at about 10 a.m. on Wednesday, July 14, when his image was captured on video surveillance.
Anyone who recognizes the man, or who may have information about these incidents is asked to call the police department’s non-emergency number at (808) 935-3311 or Officer Russ Fiesta of the Ka‘ū Patrol Division at (808) 939-2520.
Tipsters who prefer to remain anonymous may call the island-wide Crime Stoppers number at (808) 961-8300 and may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.00. Crime Stoppers is a volunteer program run by ordinary citizens who want to keep their community safe. Crime Stoppers does not record calls or subscribe to any Caller ID service. All Crime Stoppers information is kept confidential.
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GOLF & MEMBERSHIPS for Discovery Harbour Golf Course and its Clubhouse: The Club offers Social Memberships, with future use of the clubhouse and current use of the pickleball courts as well as walking and running on specified areas of the golf course before 8 a.m. and after 3 p.m. to enjoy the panoramic
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