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Dec 29: Samples frozen for future coral conservation
Mary Hagedorn, a visiting scientist and affiliate faculty member at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) and researcher at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI), has done work with others to create the first frozen repository of reef-building species of coral from the Great Barrier Reef. The thawed sperm and embryonic cells could someday be used to restore a coral species or diversify a population. The new bank includes Acropora tenuis (image at right) and A. millepora, and Hagedorn has already successfully applied this technology to reefs in the Caribbean and Hawai‘i.
Read more about it and see the video at the Smithsonian Newsdesk, and read about it at Our Amazing Planet. Image courtesy of A Hayward and A. Negri, Australian Institute of Marine Science. |
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Dec 15: Fuel cell vehicle research in Hawai‘i
US Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus visited Marine Corps Base Hawaii to investigate further applications in the Navy for fuel cell vehicles, which are currently being deployed and tested through Office of Naval Research (ONR) funding. ONR is working with researchers at the Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute (HNEI), the Dept of Energy, and other organizations to address the issue of cost-effectively producing and delivering hydrogen in large quantities to fuel the vehicles.
Read more about it at Earth Techling and FuelCell Today. Image courtesy of ONR. |
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Dec 14: Kīlauea volcano poses explosive peril
Geology & Geophysics (G&G) professor Mike Garcia and undergraduate Adonara Mucek were co-authors of a paper presented at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2011 fall meeting by Don Swanson of the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) regarding the history of explosive volcanic eruptions by Kīlauea volcano on Hawai‘i Island. "We know that it's the most lethal volcano in the US," Garcia noted, with over 200 people killed during an eruption in 1790. G&G professor Bruce Houghton also commented on the potential economic impact of an explosive phase. |
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Dec 13: “Primordial Sounds”
HIGP associate researcher Milton Garcés, director of the Infrasound Laboratory, gives a short, non-technical “pop talk” at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2011 fall meeting about infrasound: sound generated by many natural phenomena like earthquakes, but are too low to be heard by humans. |
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Dec 12: New buoy to keep an eye on the waves
Soon big-wave surfers and spectators will be able to get more accurate information about incoming swells with a buoy deployed off the famous Maui surf area “Jaws” by Oceanography professor Mark Merrifield and his team. The high-tech buoy that will collect data about wave heights, directions, swell depths, durations, and ocean temperatures. The information will then be posted every half-hour on the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS) web site, said PacIOOS director Chris Ostrander.
Read more about it in the UH News and The Maui News. Image courtesy The Maui News / Matthew Thayer; click on it to go to the original image and caption. |
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Nov 29: “Fingerprinting” lava of Hawai‘i Island’s twin volcanoes
Hawai‘i Island’s two main volcano chains — the Loa and Kea trends — have distinct sources of magma and unique plumbing systems connecting them to the Earth’s deep mantle, according to research published this week in Nature Geoscience. “Hawaiian volcanoes are the best studied in the world and yet we are continuing to make fundamental discoveries about how they work,” said co-author and Geology & Geophysics (G&G) professor Michael Garcia.
Read more about it in the Hawai‘i Reporter and RedOrbit. Image courtesy of Chuck Denny; click on it to go to the original image. |
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Nov 22: “From Deep Space to Deep Sea”
“From Deep Space to Deep Sea” is a video highlighting UH research initiatives. This video about Earth, ocean, and space sciences in Hawai‘i features research at HIGP’s W. M. Keck Cosmochemistry Laboratory, all four departments, the ALOHA Cabled Observatory (ACO), HIMB, C-MORE, IPRC, and much more. Dean Brian Taylor talks about SOEST’s unique role as an extraordinary center for ocean research, and HIGP researcher and WMKCL director Gary Huss talks about research into the formation of the solar system.
View the video at UH News. Click on the image to go to the page hosting it. |
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Nov 16: Maui residents get ready to hit the smart-grid highway
The Maui Smart Grid Project is one of several demonstration projects supported by the Department of Energy (DOE) through federal stimulus funding; Maui Smart Grid is aimed at finding ways to help residents better manage their energy use, especially during times of peak demand, and at helping Hawai‘i meet its goal of obtaining 70% of its energy from clean sources by 2030. Volunteers in South Kihei recruited by Maui Electric Company (MECO) and the Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) will take part in the project.
Read more about it at Greenbang and Earth Techling (added 12-01-11). Image courtesy of the Maui Smart Grid Project; click on it to go to their page with a description of the system. |
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Nov 08: Whale bone fossil records feast for “zombie worms”
Rare traces of bone-eating worms have been reported on a 3-million-year-old fossil whale bone from Tuscany. It is the first time worms of the genus Osedax (meaning “bone-eating”) have been found in the Mediterranean, and suggests they were more widespread millions of years ago. Osedax do not have a mouth or gut; instead, the so-called “zombie worms” consume bone by growing root-like tissues that dissolve and absorb the material. Oceanography professor Craig Smith is a co-author of the Historical Biology paper.
Read more about it in BBC Nature, Science Daily, The Telegraph, and Huffington Post, Image courtesy of N. Higgs; click on it to see the full version. |
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Nov 06: Keil honored at international meeting on Kaua‘i
HIGP professor Klaus Keil, who has been an extraordinarily productive researcher and an outstanding administrator for 50 years; his wide-ranging research has covered all types of meteorites and Apollo lunar samples. He will be honored on 08 Nov 11 at the international Lunar and Planetary Institute’s workshop “Formation of the First Solids in the Solar System” on Kaua‘i.
Read more about it in the UH press release and the HIGP home page. |
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Nov 04: Japanese firms start Maui smart grid project
In a joint undertaking by the US and Japan based on the Japan-US Clean Energy Technologies Action Plan, Hitachi, Cyber Defence Institute, and Mizuho Corporate Bank have been selected as contractors for a smart grid demonstration project on Maui Island in Hawai‘i. The contractors will cooperate with the state of Hawai‘i, Hawaiian Electric Company, the Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute (HNEI), and the US National Laboratories in the project.
Read more about it here, or download the press release PDF. |
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Nov 03: Researchers study dwindling population of opihi
Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) postdoctoral scholar Christopher Bird and his research team went to Papahānaumokuākea—the Northwest Hawaiian islands—to study opihi populations. “What we can do is get an idea of what these populations look like minus the impact of human harvesting and that can give us a better idea of what our targets should be in terms of conservation and sustainable fisheries on the main islands,” said Bird. He said that O‘ahu now has only 10 percent of the amount of opihi it had over 100 years ago.
Read more about it at KITV.com here and see the video noting the importance of sustainable harvesting here, read more at KHON. Image courtesy of B. Bangerter. |
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Nov 02: Online, interactive global map of coral for climate study
Researchers at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) have developed a web application GeoSymbio that provides global-scale biological and ecosystem information on the symbiotic zooxanthellae Symbiodinium, a uni-cellular, photosynthetic dinoflagellate living inside the cells of other marine organisms like anemones, jellyfish, and corals, providing energy to their hosts. Zoologist Erik Franklin, one of the project’s lead developers, states that the ability to observe coral reefs this way “has global and societal implications for tropical nations and thus, the dissemination of this information is essential.”
Read more about it at UH Current News (added 11-06-11) and in Scoop World. Image courtesy of HIMB. |
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Oct 26: Explosive underwater eruptions are deepest yet seen
SOEST and University of Washington scientists recently collected boninite, a rare, chemically distinct lava that accompanies the formation of Earth’s subduction zones. G&G professor Ken Rubin and colleagues sampled lava from the West Mata volcano, erupting 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) below the surface in the Southwest Pacific Ocean. “Everything about the eruption itself — how fast, how intense, the ratio of lava to explosive fragments, the amount and composition of gas released — is new to us,” Rubin said.
Read more about it at OurAmazingPlanet and MSNBC, and watch a video of “lava bubbles” at West Mata submarine volcano on YouTube. Image courtesy of J. Resing, UW; click on it to see the full version. |
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Oct 24: The moon is bursting with precious titanium
Lava flows that solidified into rock on the moon are enriched with titanium in concentrations far higher than typically found on Earth. Detailed maps from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a robotic NASA satellite orbiting the moon, show deposits as rich as about 18 percent, said Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) planetary geologist Jeffrey Gillis-Davis. “Up to three percent is considered high on Earth,” he said. The element is mostly found in the mineral ilmenite, which also contains iron and oxygen.
Read more about it in Discovery News. Image courtesy of NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University; click on it to go to the full version. |
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Oct 16: Researchers project rainfall changes for next 30 years
Focusing for two years on data from O‘ahu’s south shore, researchers recently published a report in the Journal of Geophysical Research formulating a long-term projection of heavy rainfall and flooding. Their models predict overall levels of precipitation will be lower, with ”…an increased number of heavy rain events, but a decrease in the intensity with each event," said research assistant Chase Norton. State climatologist and Meteorology professor Pao-Shin Chu warns this decrease in intensity may negatively affect aquifers.
Hear Dr Chu interviewed on HPR’s “The Conversation” (starting at about the 36 min. mark; link added 10-26-11). Read more about it and see the video at Hawaii News Now; read more about it in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser (subscription only) and The Republic. Image courtesy of Hawaii News Now. |
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Oct 16: Discovery of tsunami debris matches model
The great Japan tsunami on 11 March 2011 washed millions of tons of debris into the Pacific Ocean; scientists at the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) have been trying to predict the trajectory of this debris, which can threaten small ships and coastlines. Senior researcher Nikolai Maximenko and scientific computer programmer Jan Hafner say the discovery of debris — including a small boat — by a Russian ship homeward bound from Honolulu to Vladivostok confirms the ocean track their computer models predict.
Read more about it at see the video at Hawaii News Now (added 11-04-11); read more about it in the New York Times, at Honolulu Star-Advertiser (subscription only) The Daily Mail, MSNBC, Science Codex, UPI Science News, and The Japan Times. Image courtesy of STS Pallada; click on it to see the full version. |
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Oct 10: UH submariners locate wrecks of three Navy vessels
For more than a decade, the deep-diving crews of the Hawai‘i Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL) have multitasked required annual test dives in their Pisces submersibles with searches for notable shipwrecks off the coast of O‘ahu. "There are a lot of targets we’ve spotted by sonar that we’d like to get to one day," said pilot Terry Kerby, "But there isn’t enough time, so we look when we can." In September, they discovered three wrecks off the South Shore, two of which were craft haunted by terrible Navy disasters.
Read more about it at Honolulu Star-Advertiser (subscription only) and The Republic. Image courtesy of HURL; click on it to see the full version. |
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Oct 09: UH Mānoa chosen to host new Climate Science Center
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced on Friday 07 October the establishment of the Pacific Islands Climate Science Center (CSC), a consortium to be hosted at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. It will be led by meteorologist Kevin Hamilton, director of the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC). Key contributions to the development of the successful proposal were provided by coastal geologist Charles "Chip" Fletcher, SOEST’s associate dean for academic affairs.
Read more about it at Honolulu Civil Beat (added 10-26-11), PhysOrg.com, and in the Saipan Tribune. Image courtesy of DOI; click on it to go to the DOI press release. |
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Sep 28: Stone is first Native Hawaiian to visit Lō‘ihi Seamount
Native Hawaiian practitioner Tom Pohaku Stone is beaming from his trip in HURL’s Pisces IV submersible to visit Lō‘ihi Seamount at a depth of almost 1800 meters.The well-respected administrator of Kanalu, a non-profit focusing on Hawaiian cultural education, received a call from National Geographic asking if he’d join the latest mission to the active volcano off Hawai‘i Island. “Being the first Hawaiian going down, it’s amazing to see the birth of the new island that tutu Pele is working on,” said Stone.
Read more about it and see video at KHON2. Image courtesy of KHON2 and SOEST. |
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Sep 28: NSF Career-Life Balance Initiative announcement
First Lady Michelle Obama spoke about the importance of supporting and retaining women and girls who choose careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and science, the so-called STEM disciplines. She applauded the “practical, commonsense steps” that will enable women and men to balance work and family. Geology & Geophysics (G&G) associate professor Julia Hammer was one of the NSF-supported scientists invited to represent the many scientists who face family challenges while maintaining a research career.
Read more about it and watch the video at WhiteHouse.gov. Image courtesy of the White House; click on it for a larger version with caption. |
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Sep 14: Rising seas top threat to NW Hawaiian Islands
When researchers looked into the most significant threats to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, the greatest was rising sea levels. Research into this area is documented at The Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology’s (HIMB) new Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Research Partnership website, which documents research being done in the NWHI. This chain of remote but fragile islands that lie beyond Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau is managed as the Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Monument.
Read more about it at Raising Islands and in the Red Orbit. Image courtesy of James Watt. |
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Sep 09: Tsunami debris creates Pacific shipping hazard
Researchers say tons of debris resulting from the tsunami that struck Japan in March are drifting thousands of kilometers into the Pacific, and could present a hazard to both marine life and shipping vessels. Nikolai Maximenko from the Pacific Research Center (IPRC) says the debris is believed to be a few hundred kilometers east of the Midway islands. Links to Maximenko’s computer simulation of the projected path of the debris across the Pacific, and articles describing it, are archived here.
Read more about it at Australian Broadcasting Corp. Online and see the video report on Japanese TV at NHK World. Image courtesy of US Navy. |
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Sep 08: Giant red crabs invade the Antarctic abyss
Huge crabs more than a meter across have invaded the Antarctic abyss, wiped out the local wildlife and now threaten to ruin ecosystems that have evolved over 14 million years. Oceanography professor Craig Smith is lead author of an article in The Proceedings of The Royal Society describing ecological impact of king crabs in Palmer Deep on the west Antarctic Peninsula shelf. As minimum sea temperatures rise, the giant crabs are moving into these new, very fragile environments.
Read more about it and see video at New Science; read more about it at CNN (added 09-14-11), MSNBC.com, the Voice of America blog, io9, and the UH press release. Image courtesy of SOEST. |
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Sep 07: Weather Wise 2011 prize winner Alex Daniels
Meteorology department undergraduate Alex Daniels won first place in the Weather Wise 2011 photo contest for his image of lightning over Honolulu at night. Congratulations, Alex! |
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Sep 01: Discerning why corals struggle in acidic seas
Paul Jokiel, a researcher at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) has a new explanation for the mechanism by which ocean acidification interferes with the formation of calcium carbonate by corals that use the mineral to build their hard skeleton, which in turn form the foundations for reefs. His research suggests that the primary effect of acidification on coral growth is to interfere with the transfer of hydrogen ions between the water column and the coral tissue in what is called the ”proton flux hypothesis.“
Read more about it in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, at Ocean Acidification, and in RxPG News. Image courtesy of Jason Helyer/NOAA; click on it to go to the full image. |
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Aug 31: Asteroid yielding its secrets
The Hayabusa mission, developed and managed by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, in 2003 sent a spacecraft to a near-Earth asteroid called 25143 Itokawa, returning with samples in 2010. The mission demonstrates that “solar system samples returned for study in terrestrial laboratories are crucial in understanding the origin and evolution of the solar system,” notes HIGP researcher Alexander N. Krot in an essay accompanying papers about the findings published in Science.
Read more about it at C&EN and in the Tacoma News Tribune. Image courtesy of JAXA/ISIS. |
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Aug 29: Trades and “Big Wind”
State Climatologist and meteorology professor Pao-Shin Chu, SOEST’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and geology professor Chip Fletcher, and IPRC director and meteorology professor Kevin Hamilton comment on the possibility that the $3 billion Hawai‘i Interisland Renewable Energy Program on Lanai‘i and Moloka‘i may be adversely affected by potential changes in trade winds, such that it may be undermined by the global climate change it is intended to help mitigate.
Read more about it in the Honolulu Weekly. Image courtesy of HECO. |
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Aug 25: International shark research partnership in Palau
The Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS) is helping fund an international team of researchers, conservationists, commercial dive operators, and government agencies to deploy and operate an array of acoustic devices to monitor the movement of sharks in the waters of Palau. This array, the first of its kind in the waters of Micronesia, supports Palau’s world-leading effort to conserve and protect sharks within the whole of their Exclusive Economic Zone.
Read more about it in the press release and in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Image courtesy of SOEST. |
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Aug 24: Hawai‘i’s history full of powerful earthquakes
In a video report in response to the 08-23-11 earthquake on the East coast of the US — the largest in over a century — Geology & Geophysics professor Steve Martel discusses Hawai‘i’s history of large quakes. The last strong earthquake to strike Hawai‘i was nearly five years ago when a 6.7 magnitude quake centered off the West coast of Hawai‘i Island rattled it, Maui County, and O‘ahu. “In the last 200 years or so there have been eight that were as large or larger than the one in 2006,” he said.
Read more about it and see the video report at KITV.com. Image courtesy of KITV. |
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Aug 24: Governor announces ultra-fast internet initiative
Hawai‘i’s Governor Neil Abercrombie, state officials, and business leaders gathered at the Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE)’s UH headquarters in C-MORE Hale to call for affordable ultra-high-speed Internet statewide. The target connection is 1 gigabit per second. The news conference was transmitted from C-MORE Hale’s conference center in high definition to neighbor islands; recordings of the live stream and KITV broadcasts can be seen on the C-MORE home page.
Read more about it and see a video report at KITV.com and Maui Now; and read more about it in the Governors’s press release, the Pacific Business News, and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Image courtesy of SOEST. |
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Aug 23: Discussing human impact on the deep sea
Oceanography professor Craig Smith was one of over 20 deep-sea experts who conducted a semi-quantitative analysis of the most important anthropogenic impacts that affect deep-sea habitats at the global scale in the past, present, and future scenarios published in Public Library of Science ONE on 01 August 2011. He recently discussed the project on Hawaii Public Radio’s program “The Conversation.”
Listen to it here (starting at about 41:30 and ending at 48:10); read more about it in the SOEST press release (PDF) and Voice of America’s blog (added 09-07-11). Image courtesy of Craig Smith. |
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Aug 17: First light at the ALOHA Cabled Observatory
Researchers are hoping that the ALOHA Cabled Observatory (ACO), installed on the ocean floor at a depth of 4700 meters about 100 kilometers north of Oahu, will shine new light on physical and biological processes on the deep sea. “After 18 days of hard work at sea, and months of preparations, the ship’s crew and science groups were elated with our success in establishing the world’s deepest cabled ocean observatory,” notes Oceanography professor Roger Lukas.
See the press release for more information, and read more about it in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin article (subscription only) and Technology News Bytes. Image courtesy of SOEST. |
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Aug 17: Losing the battle on biodiversity
Protected areas around the world are failing to preserve biodiversity, according to a recent paper by Camilo Mora (UH Geography) and Peter F. Sale (UN University International Network on Water, Environment, and Health). “What regulations are vary from place to place, many [protected areas] still have human contact and it may not be commercial but it could be recreational — habitat could still be threatened," comments Oceanography specialist and undergraduate chair Jane Schoonmaker.
Read more about at Ka Leo O Hawai‘i. Image courtesy of Nik Seu/ Ka Leo O Hawai‘i. |
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Aug 09: East Africa climate under El Niño spell since ice age
The severe drought in East Africa is being attributed to La Niña conditions that prevailed in the Pacific until May 2011. Oceanography professor and International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) researcher Axel Timmermann is a co-author of a study published in the journal Science showing that the waxing and waning of rainfall in eastern tropical Africa in unison with El Niño–Southern Oscillation already existed 20,000 years ago, though for the last 3,000 years the climate has been less stable.
Read more about it at bits of science (added 12-13-11), Science Daily, Discovery News, Planetsave, and ScienceNewsline; see also the IPRC press release. Image courtesy of Discovery News. |
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Aug 08: Young scientists get view of Ordnance Reef project
Three Iolani School students — Logan Davis, Kyle Flores, and Erin Main — and their two mentors, HIGP researcher Margo Edwards and associate specialist Mark Rognstad, were invited to have a remote-controlled undersea robot deploy a time-lapse camera they devised to study marine life near unexploded munitions. “When it comes back up, you get 3,000- to 4,000 pictures and you can stitch them into one long movie and you can watch it. So it’s kind of hyper-accelerated video and it’s really great for watching things that move slowly,” said Davis.
Read more about it and see the video report at KITV.com and see a sample of the data video on YouTube. Image courtesy of Logan Davis, Kyle Flores, and Erin Main. |
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Aug 04: Dolphin may sense the body electric
Paul Nachtigall, director of the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP) at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) comments on the recent discovery that the Guiana dolphin (Sotalia guianensis) appear to be able to detect electric fields. He observes that animals in a marine environment have many ways of generating natural electrical fields. “Everything that I’m doing when I’m talking, when my brain is working, is making an electrical field. And water carries electricity,” he says.
Read more about at Science News. Image courtesy of Richard Diepstraten. |
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Aug 02: Garcés named as a 2011 PopTech Science Fellow
Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) associate researcher Milton Garcés, director of the UH Infrasound Laboratory, has been named a 2011 PopTech Science Fellow. These are high-potential early- and mid-career scientists working in areas of critical importance to the nation and the planet. Congratulations, Milton!
Read more about it in the UH press release. |
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Aug 01: Raymond Tanabe: Meteorologist in charge
Head Honolulu meteorologist and Department of Meteorology alumnus (BS ’97, MS ’00) Raymond Tanabe is profiled in the July 2011 issue of Malamalama, the magazine of the University of Hawai'i. “It was evident early on that Ray had the interest, talent and personality to go a long way in a career with the National Weather Service,” says Meteorology professor and JIMAR director Tom Schroeder, who “nudged and sometimes bulldozed” Tanabe from undergraduate through graduate school.
Read more about it in Malamalama. Image courtesy of Malamalama. |
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Jul 26: Mitochondria share an ancestor with SAR11
Billions of years ago, certain bacteria began living inside other cells, eventually evolving into the mitochondria, the “power plants” found in eukaryotic cells. Researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) and UH Mānoa (UHM) report strong evidence that mitochondria share a common ancestor with a lineage of marine bacteria known as SAR11, arguably the most abundant group of microorganisms on Earth. Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) associate researcher Michael Rappé is a co-author.
Read more about it at Science Daily and World Science; read the UH press release. Image courtesy of M. Rappé, SOEST. |
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Jul 21: NOAA Sea Grant Coastal Storms Program
Senator Dan Inouye’s office released a press release highlighting the NOAA Coastal Storms Program which the UH Sea Grant College Program is hosting. The program is part of a nationwide effort to assist coastal communities decrease the negative impacts of coastal storms on families, communities, the environment, natural resources, and property. Dolan Eversole is coordinating the program and engaging with local partners and managers to assist in developing coastal hazard resilience efforts and capacity building in these areas.
Read more about it at Hawaii News Now, in the Pacific Business News, and at Canada Views. Image courtesy of the National Weather Service. |
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Jul 20: Jeff Taylor receives 2011 Shoemaker Award
Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) planetary scientist G. Jeffrey Taylor received the 2011 Shoemaker Distinguished Lunar Scientist Award, presented by the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI). Read more about it on the HIGP home page and the NASA award page. Congratulations, Jeff! |
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Jul 15: Chinese media get Hawai‘i exposure before APEC
In preparation for the upcoming APEC meeting in Honolulu, eight Chinese media and a handful of APEC host committee members met with SOEST researchers. Dean Brian Taylor gave a tour of the R/V Kilo Moana; C-MORE director and Oceanography professor Dave Karl gave presentations discussing microbial oceanography and the long-term HOT program, and IPRC director and Meteorology professor Kevin Hamilton gave a presentation addressing climate change modeling.
Read more about and see the video at Hawaii News Now, and read about it in the Pacific Business News. Image courtesy of SOEST. |
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Jul 14: UH Mānoa Chancellor’s Teaching Awards
Geology & Geophysics professor and SOEST Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Charles “Chip” Fletcher, and Meteorology professor Steven Businger, were presented with a 2011 UH Mānoa Chancellor’s Citation for Meritorious Teaching by Chancellor Virginia S. Hinshaw. The annual award recognizes UH Mānoa faculty members who have made significant contributions to teaching and student learning. Congratulations, Chip and Steven!
Read more about it in News@UH and UH News. Image courtesy of University of Hawai‘i. |
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Jul 14: Testing remotely operated systems to clear munitions
The U.S. Army is set to begin a demonstration project using a remotely operated systems to recover and dispose of ordnance dumped off shore of the island of O‘ahu after World War II. Oceanography professor Eric De Carlo “will be doing environmental monitoring during the work so as to determine the effect, if any, of munitions removal on the conditions in the water column (i.e., if munitions constituents are released, if turbidity is created, etc.),” sampling again six months later to see if there are changes.
Read more about it and see the video at Hawaii News Now, see the video at KITV.com, and read about it at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Image courtesy of Hawaii News Now. |
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Jul 11: Trove of rare-earth minerals stirs environmental fears
Oceanography professors Eric De Carlo and Craig Smith, and associate professor Gary McMurtry comment on the potential environmental impact and technical difficulties of mining rare-earth elements, important in modern products and manufacturing processes, from the deep sea floor. This is in response to recent announcements by Japanese researchers that some sediment samples collected near Hawai“i had concentrations as high as 0.1 percent; this is a level greater than mines in China, the world's leader in rare-earth element production.
Read more about it in Hawaii News Now (added 07-21-11), Scientific American, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, and bigthink.com. Image courtesy of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin; click on it to go to the original. |
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Jul 06 : Findings show evolutionary process in Hawai‘i’s waters
‘Opihi, members of the limpet family known for their cone-shaped shell affixed to ocean rocks, have put an end to the misconception that Hawai‘i’s waters, unlike Hawai‘i’s terrestrial environments, are an evolutionary “dead end” for species diversity. Chris Bird, postdoctoral fellow at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB), led a team that has shown that Hawai‘i was colonized by a species of Japanese limpet about five million years ago which evolved into three endemic species living at different depths.
Read more about it in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Raising Islands, (both added 07-11-11), and West Hawaii Today; read the press release at UH Mānoa News. Image courtesy of Chris Bird (HIMB) and The Nature Conservancy of Hawai‘i. |
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Jul 05 : Development of smart grid key to goal of green energy
Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) assistant specialist James P. Griffin talks about the need to develop a “smart grid” — technology that adjusts to fluctuations in availability of energy sources depending on wind, sun and other natural elements — as Hawai‘i builds a green energy infrastructure. “Maui is already a leader, but the grid here is limited,” he said. “As more renewables come online, the potential for problems increases. We are definitely breaking ground, though.”
Read more about it in the Maui Weekly (added 07-14-11) and The Maui News. Image courtesy of HNEI. |
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Jun 30 : “Where are you heading Earth?”
Oceanography professor Richard E. Zeebe writes in the current issue of Nature Geoscience about the importance of palaeoclimatology: “…we need to know accurately what the change in Earth’s global surface temperature is per doubling of atmospheric CO2, a measure often loosely referred to as climate sensitivity. Remarkably, rather than looking to the future, the answer might come from looking to the past (unde venis, ‘where do you come from?’).”
Read more about it at Nature Geoscience. Image courtesy of NASA. |
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Jun 29 : Hotspot variability attributed to small-scale convection
Small scale convection at the base of the Pacific plate has been simulated in a model of mantle plume dynamics, enabling researchers to explain the complex set of observations at the Hawai‘i hotspot, according to a study in the online Nature Geoscience. “A range of observations cannot be explained by the classical version of the mantle plume concept,” says lead author and Geology & Geophysics postdoctoral researcher Maxim Ballmer. G&G associate professor Garrett Ito is a co-author.
Read more about it at Nature Geoscience, in ScienceDaily, and at EurekaAlert!; read the press release at UH System News. Image courtesy of Maxim Ballmer, SOEST; click on it to go to the full version. |
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Jun 29 : Partnering for restaurant waste-trap grease research
UH Mānoa and Pacific Biodiesel Inc. have signed an agreement to collaborate on research in the treatment of restaurant waste-trap grease, seeking to turn a problematic waste into a new source of useful products, such as liquid and gaseous fuels, and soil amendments. “This is part of the University’s serious and long-term efforts toward becoming a leading driver of sustainability in the state,” said Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) associate researcher Michael J. Cooney, the project leader.
Read more about it at The Hawaii Independent and UH System News. Image courtesy of HNEI. |
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Jun 14 : Google Earth’s 2011 Seafloor Tour features seafloor synthesis from HMRG
Google marked World Oceans Day by collaborating with Columbia University, the Hawai‘i Mapping Research Group (HMRG), and several other institutions in adding more ocean seafloor terrain to Google Earth than has ever been available before. Through the 2011 Seafloor Tour, you can explore half the ocean area that has ever been mapped — an area larger than North America.
Read more about it in the Washington Post, Google’s Lat Long Blog, and New Scientist. See a video highlight tour on YouTube. Image courtesy of Google; click on it to see the full version. |
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Jun 14 : Tiger sharks “yo-yo dive” in hunt for prey
Researchers at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB), in collaboration with researchers from Japan and Florida, have shed new light on the hunting behavior of tiger sharks by installing digital cameras and devices recording speed, depth, temperature, and acceleration on four sharks west of Hawai‘i Island. Project leader Carl Meyer says scientists have long debated the reasons why the animals practice yo-yo diving but have only recently developed the tools to measure the behavior.
Read more about it in the UH News and the Greenfield Daily Reporter. Image courtesy of C. Meyer. |
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Jun 09 : Pacific radioactivity assessment off Fukushima
Geology & Geophysics (G&G) assistant professor Henrieta Dulaiova is a member of the first international, multidisciplinary assessment of levels and dispersal of radioactive substances in the Pacific Ocean off the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The 15-day expedition aboard the R/V Kaimikai-O-Kanoloa will collect water and biological samples and take ocean current measurements in a 200 sq. km. area off of the plant and further offshore along the Kuroshio Current.
Read more about it at Santa Cruz Sentinel (link added 08-15-11), Hawaii News Now, Hydro International, and the NSF News. Image via Hydro International. |
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Jun 07 : C-MORE Hale wins building design excellence award
C-MORE Hale, the new building that houses the Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE) on the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa campus has won a 2011 Kukulu Hale Award from the Hawai‘i Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP). The organization is the nation’s leading trade association for developers, owners, investors, asset managers, and related professionals.
Read more about it in the UH News. Image courtesy of C-MORE; click on it to learn more about C-MORE Hale. |
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May 31 : Questioning what is feeding Hawaiian hotspot
Rather than being fueled by a relatively simple vertical plume of magma rising from deep within the Earth, a paper in the 27 May 2011 issue of Science suggests that volcanic activity in the islands is fed by a massive hot pool of rock some 1,000 kilometers to the west of the islands. Other scientists don’t think the hot plume is done for: professor Cecily Wolfe, a seismologist at the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP), and her team have imaged something resembling a plume beneath the islands that extended into the uppermost part of the lower mantle.
Updated: Read more about it at Nature News, Science Now, Wired News, and Discover (added 06-21-11). Image courtesy of HIGP. |
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May 26 : Hurricane season: 01 June – 30 November
The 2011 hurricane season should bring only a few storms to the central Pacific, but forecasters urged residents to remain vigilant. Two to four tropical cyclones are predicted, thanks in part to the cooling effects of the La Niña weather phenomenon; typically, four to five tropical cyclones form per season. To help you prepare for hurricanes (and other natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunami, and floods from other causes), the UH Sea Grant College Program’s “Homeowner’s Handbook to Prepare for Natural Hazards” is available as a downloadable PDF.
Read more about it at Honolulu Star-Advertiser; visit UH Sea Grant for information about workshops on natural hazard community preparedness. Image courtesy of NOAA. |
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May 23 : HNEI collaboration: more electric vehicles for Maui
Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) is among the partners who will collaborate on a multimillion-dollar smart grid demonstration project on Maui aimed at improving integration of variable renewable energy resources, and at preparing the electric system for widespread adoption of electric vehicles. “Through this Japanese-U.S. partnership, we can demonstrate how these technologies can help solve Maui’s energy challenges and be used in other parts of the world, especially on other island systems such as ours,” said Richard Rocheleau, Director of HNEI.
Read more about it at Power-Gen. Image courtesy of HNEI / SOEST. |
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May 17 : $1 million awarded to advance biofuels in Hawai‘i
HNEI associate researcher Michael J. Cooney will lead a two-year project investigating Jatropha curcas, a fast-growing, drought resistant tropical oil-bearing plant rich in fatty oils that can be converted to biodiesel. “It’s a perennial crop, you can prune it to make it easier to harvest, and it has a natural pesticide in it, which is useful,” he said. The project will also explore the conversion of waste biomass into carbonized material that can be used for soil enrichment.
Read more about it at Biofuels Journal, Biodiesel Magazine, and UH News. Image courtesy of Frank Vincentz, Wikimedia Commons; click on it to go to the original. |
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May 11 : Spanish research vessel docked at Honolulu Harbor
Honolulu Harbor recently played host to the Spanish research vessel Hésperides on the half-way mark of an important around-the-world voyage assessing the impact of global climate change on the oceans and life below. Oceanography researchers are partnering with the Spanish expedition to share critical information about waters around the Hawaiian Islands. “We can exchange data on the local effects, what's happening around the Hawaiian islands and they can tell us what's happening in the middle of the Pacific,” said Dave Karl.
See the KITV4 video on the C-MORE home page, read more about it at KITV.com. Visit “Malaspina in Honolulu” for information about the cruise and a schedule of events. Image courtesy of C-MORE; click on it to learn more. |
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May 10 : Millions face high risk of massive Andes quake
Millions of people living near the Andes Mountains face a significantly higher risk of a giant earthquake than previously thought, and such a temblor could be more than 10 times stronger than anything the region has expected in the past. HIGP researcher Ben Brooks, lead author of the paper in Nature Geoscience, said, “It could be like a combination of the 2010 earthquake in Chile, which was very powerful, with the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, which hit a place with inadequate building standards.”
Read more about it at MSNBC.com, ScienceDaily, Times Live, and the abstract at Nature.com (full article available by subscription). Image courtesy of NASA; click on it to go to the original with caption. |
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May 08 : Tree rings tell 1100-year history of El Niño
An international team of climate scientists, lead by International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) postdoctoral researcher Jinbao Li, has shown that annually resolved tree-ring records from North America give a continuous representation of the intensity of El Niño events over the past 1100 years and can be used to improve El Niño prediction in climate models. Notes Shang-Ping Xie, co-author of the Nature Climate Change paper, “Our tree-ring data offer key observational benchmarks for evaluating and perfecting climate models…"
Read more about it in at Raising Islands (added 05-26-11), ScienceDaily, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, UPI.com, and the abstract at Nature.com (full article available by subscription). Image courtesy of IPRC. |
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May 06 : 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite yields new mineral krotite
The first natural occurrence of a low-pressure CaAl2O4 mineral in a meteorite is reported in the May–June 2011 issue of American Mineralogist. The discovery team named the new mineral krotite, honoring Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) researcher Sasha Krot, known for his achievements in the study of primitive meteorites and contributions to understanding early solar system processes. That krotite forms at high temperatures and low pressure makes it likely it is one of the first minerals formed in the solar system.
Read more about it in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, at MSNBC.com, LiveScience, in Planetary Science Research Discoveries (PSRD) CosmoSparks, and at News@UH. Image courtesy of Chi Ma; click on it for a link to the full labeled image with caption. |
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May 03 : Surveying life in the abyssal deep, and close to home
Oceanography professor Craig Smith talks to Midweek magazine about his work with the 10-year project “Census of Marine Life” Its purpose was to evaluate the biodiversity of all marine life in the Earth’s oceans, and his group focused on the abyssal plains at depths from 10,000 to 20,000 feet. The article also discusses his other ongoing research, including work in the area around the West Antarctic Peninsula, an area that is warming at the fastest rate on the planet.
Read more about it in Midweek. Image courtesy of Craig Smith, SOEST. |
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Apr 21 : Whale bone-devouring worm into more than whales
Osedax worms, first described less than 10 years ago, were initially found feeding on the bones of whale carcasses on the sea floor known as “whale falls.” Research into their reproduction, evolution, and ecology has yielded insights into a unique way of life. The work of Oceanography professor Craig Smith and subsequent researchers is discussed in an article at Deep Sea News, including recent findings that the worms also colonize large fish bones, as well as the sunken bones of other mammals.
Read more about it and see the video, produced by Smith’s lab, of whale fall succession at Deep Sea News. Image courtesy of Craig Smith, SOEST. |
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Apr 15 : “Drifters” could monitor ocean radiation from Japan
Scientists want to drop 60 floating “drifters” into the debris field produced by the recent Japanese tsunami in order to a better idea of where the debris is going and how much radiation has entered the ocean. If approved, the emergency project would drop drifters from airplanes next month, according to Nikolai Maximenko, a senior researcher with the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC), whose statistical model projecting the paths of the tsunami is based on such drifting buoys.
Read more about it at Discovery News. Image courtesy of US Navy. |
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Apr 11 : An eclectic past paves the way for cutting-edge marine science and conservation
Moku O Lo‘e (also known as “Coconut Island”) in Kane‘ohe Bay is home of the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB). A review article in Green Magazine provides an excellent introduction to the people and the research centered at this unique tropical marine research laboratory located just 15 miles from the main campus of the University of Hawai‘i and downtown Honolulu.
Read more about it in Green Magazine. Photo by Ian Gillespie. |
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Apr 07 : Pollution-trawling voyage finds predicted plastic
Researchers from 5 Gyres Institute in Santa Monica, CA, and the Algalita Marine Research Foundation in Long Beach, CA, sailed into Piriápolis, Uruguay, having just completed the third leg of the first expedition ever to study plastic pollution in the South Atlantic subtropical gyre. In every single trawl, the team discovered bits of plastic, just like Nikolai Maximenko, a senior researcher with the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC), predicted they would.
Read more about it in New Scientist. Image courtesy of N. Maximenko. |
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Apr 06 : Students virtually participate in 1000th Pisces dive
Nearly 500 students from more than 35 classrooms “virtually” accompanied researchers from the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL) on the 1,000th dive by one of the lab’s twin Pisces manned-submersibles. The students participating in Creep into the Deep: Virtual Research Mission to the Deep-sea communicated with scientists aboard the Pisces V submersible from classrooms around the country via email updates, photos, and video.
Read more about it at MSNBC.com, Our Amazing Planet, and NOAA News. Image courtesy of R.L. Pyle; click on it to go to the original. |
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Apr 01 : Earthquakes spur questions of another quake soon
Professor Greg Moore, chair of Geology & Geophysics (G&G), and geophysicist Rhett Butler, are earthquake specialists and have answered a lot of questions recently about earthquake clusters. While they were surprised at the exact location of the recent Japan quake, they do not think that the number of big quakes in the past few years is unusual. In fact, some seismologists theorize that “great earthquakes” (over magnitude 8) are the norm, and that the lull from the late 1960s to 2004 was the curious aberration.
Read more about it and see the video interviews at Hawaii News Now here and here. Image courtesy of Hawaii News Now; click on it to go to the original. |
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Mar 28 : Tsunami data bolsters confidence in maps
Ocean and Resources Engineering (ORE) researcher Kwok Fai Cheung is using data from the 11 March 2011 tsunami to increase confidence in his team’s recently updated the inundation zone maps for the island of O‘ahu. “The data confirms that our models are doing a reasonable job in predicting the tsunami event,” he noted. Cheung has spent the past seven years redrawing inundation zones; Hawai‘i State Civil Defense is using the information it gets from his team to fine tune its evacuation maps.
Update: Dr Cheung talks more about how the maps were produced in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Read more about it and watch the video at Hawaii News Now. Image courtesy of Hawaii News Now; click on it to go to the original. |
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Mar 19 : Experts: virtually no threat to Hawai‘i from Fukushima radiation
According to experts from the Department of Meteorology and the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) the risks to Hawai‘i from the situation at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant are negligible. Meteorology professors Thomas Schroeder, director of the Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (JIMAR), and Steven Businger, lead scientist for the modeling of vog dispersion from Kilauea Volcano, explained that there are several factors keeping Hawai‘i safe from this potential threat. “It’s very unlikely that these radioactive isotopes from Japan could get into the island's water sources and rainfall,” said Don Thomas, HIGP geochemist and director of the Center for Study of Active Volcanoes (CSAV), when asked about water sources on Hawai‘i Island.
Update: In an article at KHON2.com, passant professor of Geology & Geophysics (G&G) Henrieta Dulaiova notes that by the time radioactive material released from the Fukushima reactor eventually reaches Hawai‘i, it will be extremely diluted in sea water. The water remains safe to drink and the fish are safe to eat, but that she is collecting baseline data now and the situation will be monitored.
Link added 04-07-11: Read more about it at KHON2.com, in the UH press release and in West Hawaii Today. Image courtesy of NASA. |
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Mar 17 : Japan’s “tsunami trash” predicted to reach Hawai‘i
No one knows for sure yet how much of the debris from Japan’ massive earthquake and tsunami will sink to the sea floor and how much will be carried across the Pacific. Nikolai Maximenko, a senior researcher with the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC), believes the islands will see the first evidence of “tsunami trash” in a year and a half. In five to six years, Hawai‘i is expected to see the greatest impact, which will then stretch over a prolonged period of time.
Nikolai Maximenko has produced an animated computer simulation of the projected movement of the debris across the ocean over the next several years. Read more about it at CNN.com (including a Flash animation), Hawaii News Now, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, UPI.com, KITV.com, and EurekaAlert!. Image courtesy of Nikolai Maximenko; click here or on the image to see the full animated GIF. |
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Mar 18 : Undersea cable can pad O‘ahu’s electricity cache
A new study has found that an additional 400 megawatts of wind power from wind farms on the islands of Lana‘i and Moloka‘i, coupled with existing wind farms and solar energy, could provide 25% of the projected electricity demand for O‘ahu, location of Honolulu and most of the state’s population. “The findings of this study show it is feasible to integrate large-scale wind and solar projects on O‘ahu but also have value beyond Hawai‘i,” said Rick Rocheleau, director of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (HNEI).
Read more about it in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and Daily Tech. In a related article, read in Solar Server how, with upgrades and new practices, O‘ahu could integrate 25% of its electricity from wind and solar. Image courtesy of National Renewable Energy Laboratory. |
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Mar 17 : Japan-level tsunami damage unlikely in Hawai‘i
A study lead by Ocean and Resources Engineering (ORE) researcher Kwok Fai Cheung modeling the ”credible worst case scenario” for a tsunami hitting the Hawaiian Islands was used to update O‘ahu’s evacuation maps. Hawai‘i Island officials believe their maps were already sufficiently conservative to require no changes. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) geophysicist Gerard Fryer (HIGP affiliate faculty) notes the very low probability of an earthquake of that magnitude near the islands.
Read more about it at Honolulu Civil Beat. Image courtesy of Adrienne LaFrance/Honolulu Civil Beat. |
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Mar 13 : Coverage of March 2011 tsunami affecting Hawai‘i
In late 2008, Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) assistant researcher Carl G. Meyer and colleagues caught four tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) off the island of Hawai‘i and fitted them with sensors and tracking devices, including digital cameras on two of them. In a pair of recent papers, they confirm the animals are accurate navigators that don’t spend much time at the surface during the day. Instead, they “yo-yo dive”: repeatedly descending to depths of +300 ft and returning nearer the surface.
Read more about it in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Image courtesy of HIMB; click on it to see other images on the news article page. |
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Mar 11 : Coverage of March 2011 tsunami affecting Hawai‘i
During the tsunami that affected Hawai‘i the morning of Friday 11 March 2011, Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) geophysicist Gerard Fryer (HIGP affiliate faculty) kept local and national news up to date. Dan Walker, retired HIGP professor and tsunami adviser to the state Civil Defense agency, also commented on the event. The Hawaii Beach Safety site provided updates through the night with state and national emergency links and notices. For links to information to help you prepare for tsunamis and other natural hazards, visit the Hawai‘i Ocean Observing System (HiOOS) Coastal Hazards page.
Read more about it in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin here and here, and at Hawaii News Now’s summary of coverage. Image courtesy of Nathan Becker, Pacific Tsunami Warning Center; click on it to see the full image. |
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Mar 08 : Newly discovered humpback whale wintering area
Researchers led by Marc Lammers of the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) have shown that wintering grounds for humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Hawai‘i extend from the main Hawaiian Islands, where they have long been observed, into the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI). Lammers explains that “these findings are exciting because they force us to re-evaluate what we know about humpback whale migration and the importance of the NWHI to the population.”
Read more about it in the Hawaii Reporter and Raising Islands. Image courtesy of J.R. Mobley, Jr. under NMFS permit. |
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Mar 02 : NW Hawaiian Islands research symposium
Managers and scientists from the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB), the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM), and the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) met in late February 2011 to host the fourth annual Northwestern Hawaiian Island Research Symposium. HIMB director Jo-Ann Leong noted that the dynamic partnership “has not only made huge advances in science, but demonstrates what can be accomplished when [we] work together.”
Read more about it in UH News. Image courtesy of J. Watts. |
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Mar 01 : Tsunami lessons learned
Ocean and Resources Engineering (ORE) researcher Kwok Fai Cheung discusses the tsunami warnings issued after a massive earthquake off Chile on 27 February 2010. His team recently updated O‘ahu’s tsunami inundation maps after modeling all five tsunamis affecting Hawai‘i during the last 100 years. At the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC), geophysicist Gerard Fryer (HIGP affiliate faculty), said scientists are better equipped today to stay on top of a tsunami than they were a year ago.
Read more about it in the Hawaii News Now. Image courtesy of Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. |
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Feb 25 : Researchers look for ways to forecast vog levels
A feasibility study led by Meteorology professor Steven Businger to determine if vog forecasts are achievable and useful is being made available to the public through a new website: the Vog Measurement and Prediction (VMAP) project. “Vog” is created when sulfur dioxide emitted by a volcano mixes with sunlight and dust in the air; it can pose environmental and health risks, particularly to people with respiratory illnesses.
Read more about it and see a video at KITV.com and Big Island Video News, and read more about it in the UH News, Ka Leo, Hawaii 24/7, and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Image courtesy of SOEST; click on it to go to the VMAP web site. |
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Feb 18 : New fellowship supports research in sustainable coastal tourism
The UH Sea Grant College Program has announced its appointment of several faculty members from the UH Mānoa campus to its new Sustainable Coastal Tourism Fellowship Program, including SOEST’s David Karl, professor of Oceanography and director of the Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE).
Read more about the program in the Reef Watch Waikiki announcement, and download the flyer PDF to learn more about the faculty members. Image courtesy UH Sea Grant; click on it to see the full version. |
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Feb 16 : Ships blamed for extensive air pollution
Axel Lauer of the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) was part of the team of scientists that showed “ship engines caused emissions of 800 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), 20 million tons of nitrogen oxide (NOx) and 12 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the year 2000.” The German DLR project’s report found that “ship emissions of CO2 were about the same as the emissions caused by air travel, while the NOx emissions were about ten times higher and SO2 about 100 times higher.”
Read more about it in the Conceivably Tech. Image courtesy of IPRC. |
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Feb 16 : “Pigeonholing pyroclasts” in Geology
Geology & Geophysics volcanologists Bruce Houghton and Rebecca Carey, along with colleagues from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO), have the cover story, “Pigeonholing pyroclasts: Insights from the 19 March 2008 explosive eruption of Kilauea volcano,” in the March 2011 issue of Geology. In the event at Kilauea (on Hawai‘i island) that they discuss, neither magma nor an external water source was involved in explosive activity, complicating hazard zoning and assessment.
Read more about it in Geology. Image courtesy of Geology; photo by Dan Dzurisin, USGS. |
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Feb 15 : Talking about “The Blame Game”
In a Honolulu Weekly article about the January 2011 flooding that caused material in Waimanalo Gulch Landfill to spill into the ocean, Hawai‘i State Climatologist and Meteorology professor Pao-Shin Chu talked about the reasons for the heavy rainfall experienced on O‘ahu in December and January. Chu proposed that changing climate worldwide might be responsible for the increase in intense precipitation events seen in the last 30 years, and that they may become more frequent in this century.
Read more about it in the Honolulu Weekly. Image courtesy of S. Businger. |
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Feb 11 : UH one of NASA’s “CubeSat” candidates
NASA has selected 20 small satellites, including one from the University of Hawa’i, to fly as auxiliary payloads aboard rockets planned to launch in 2011 and 2012. CubeSats are a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites are approximately four inches long, have a volume of about one quart and weigh 2.2 pounds or less.
Read more about it in the NASA announcement. (Image courtesy Montana State Univ.) |
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Feb 09 : Hawai‘i wind power gets energy storage
A Nevada company, Altairnano, was recently awarded a $1.8 million contract to supply a 1-megawatt ALTI-ESS energy storage system at a wind power plant or “wind farm” on the island of Hawai‘i. The plant is in Hawi on the northern tip of the state’s largest island; it is run by the Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) and is connected to the Hawai‘i Electric Light Company (HELCO) grid. A HELCO representative said the project would help the company in its efforts to reduce fossil fuel dependency to zero.
Read more about it at Earth Techling. Image courtesy of National Renewable Energy Laboratory. |
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Feb 07 : Tropical Atlantic: weaker trade winds, more rainfall
Hiroki Tokinaga and Shang-Ping Xie of the International Pacific Research Center (Tokinaga and Xie) and Department of Meteorology (Xie) have developed a method to remove the bias from ocean wind measurements. Applying this method to the tropical Atlantic, they found that during the last 60 years the trade winds there have weakened, ocean temperature patterns have shifted, and Amazon and Guinea Coast rainfall has increased. Their findings appear in the February 6 issue of Nature Geoscience.
Read more about it in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, News@UH, Science Daily and redOrbit. Image courtesy of Ship DAVID STARR JORDAN, NOAA Photo Library. |
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Feb 04 : Climate Change Summit fosters collaboration
A two-day Climate Change Summit was held in Utulei, Am. Samoa, in early February. The meeting focused on mechanisms for bringing climate change adaptation to the local level by fostering community collaboration, integrating traditional knowledge, highlighting adaptation tools, and showcasing ongoing regional projects. Speakers included coastal geologist Charles “Chip” Fletcher, SOEST's Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, who gave the keynote, and Dolan Eversole of the UH Sea Grant program.
Read more about it in the Samoa News. Image courtesy of Jeff Hayner (samoanews.com). |
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Feb 03 : Ocean FEST and Nā Pua No‘eau form partnership
Ocean FEST (Families Exploring Science Together) and UH Hilo’s Nā Pua No‘eau have formed a new partnership to bring hands-on science to the Native Hawaiian community. Ocean FEST engages students in grades 3–6, their parents, and their teachers in family science events filled with fun hands-on activities based on the latest oceanography research. Nā Pua No‘eau was established for the purpose of increasing educational enrichment opportunities for Hawaiian children in grades K–12.
Read more about it in the UH News. Image courtesy of Ocean FEST. |
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Feb 02 : HIMB celebrates new research learning facility
The Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) recently celebrated the opening of its newest research learning center with students, faculty, and guests in attendance. The Marine Science Research Learning Center “… is a fantastic facility with a state-of-the-art integrated A/V system, uniquely situated on Moku o Lo‘e [Coconut Island, in Kāne‘ohe Bay] and dedicated to marine education for Hawai‘i’s students,” said education specialist Malia Rivera, principal investigator of the HIMB Education Program.
Read more about it at Ka Leo. Image courtesy of Malia Rivera, HIMB. |
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Jan 26 : Rappemonads: algae living in fresh and sea water
A newly discovered type of algae has been named after Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) associate researcher Michael Rappé: “rappemonads.” Researchers who followed up on an unexpected DNA sequence that Rappé characterized back in the late 1990s found evidence of a never before seen group of algae that live in both fresh and ocean water. They have a widely different genetic makeup from other known algae, and may constitute a potentially large, novel group of microorganisms.
Read more about it in Science Daily and the Vancouver Sun. Image courtesy of Kim, Harrison, Sudek et al.; click on it to go to the site with the full image. |
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Jan 20 : The opihi ohana
Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) postdoctoral scholar Christopher Bird comments on a program initiated by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) of Hawai‘i. The Opihi Monitoring Partnership (OMP) is a coalition of community members, scientists, nonprofits, and state and federal resource managers to study the over-harvested opihi (shore-dwelling marine limpets). “As a scientist, it’s very rewarding to work with people who have been picking throughout their entire lives. I learn a lot…”, he noted.
Read more about it at Honolulu Magazine (the article also has information about Hawai‘i’s three endemic species of opihi). Image courtesy of B. Bangerter. |
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Jan 14 : Contrasting crustal production and rapid mantle transitions beneath back-arc ridges
Back-arc spreading centers found behind subduction zones are considered to be some of the most active plate tectonic boundaries on the planet. While current models show a gradational change in crustal composition as the plate travels away from the subduction zone, new research,reported in the prestigious journal Nature by G&G Associate Professor Robert Dunn and HIGP Researcher Fernando Martinez, shows that the changes in crustal properties are actually large and quite abrupt as the ridge moves away from the arc.
Read more about it in Nature. Image courtesy of SOEST. |
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Jan 10 : Updated report on C-MORE’s SUPER cruise
Analyzing data from the 2008 C-MORE SUPER cruise to the “Pacific Garbage Patch”, Angelicque (Angel) White, assistant professor of oceanography at Oregon State University (OSU) and former C-MORE postdoctoral scholar, said that exaggerated reports distract public attention from other oceanic garbage issues that need more study. “There is no doubt that the amount of plastic in the world’s oceans is troubling, but this kind of exaggeration undermines the credibility of scientists,” White said.
Read more about it at Seadiscovery.com and the Corvallis Gazette-Times. Image courtesy of C-MORE. |
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