I would like to acknowledge the ‘āina on which we have traveled to for research which is a part of a larger territory recognized by the indigenous Hawaiians as Papahānaumoku.
Each moment I was in Hawaii, she nourished me and gifted me with the opportunity to breath her air, eat from her soil, drink her water, swim in her oceans, and be kissed by her rain. For this I am grateful to be her guest.
08.12.2021
Final push to finish Lanai. On UH Campus.
Boxes upon Boxes
On UH campus today. Bright an early as always. The last 70 boxes (~700ft) were stored at UH for reasons I forgot. Either way…time to get to work
Powering Through
Powering through spectral collection. The building had no AC and I may have gone a bit stir crazy. But we made it through and finished half a day early.
More Cool Crystals!
Both the Lanai and KMA have blessed us with the most beautiful and interesting crystal growths. Here we see a zeolite filling in a basaltic vug (ie empty space). This growth is so much more different than the previous…hmmm
08.11.2021
Continuing what is left of the Lanai Core at the PTA base. This particular drill core is taking longer. Unlike KMA and PTA drill cores, we will be the first to be taking a look at the mineralogy.
Bright and Early
Started bright an early today. Dr. Nicole Lautze of the Hawaii Play Fairway joins us today. The Lanai Core is from a different drilling project to asses geothermal resources on the other islands.
Pattern Recognition
Zeolites and calcite are pervasive in all units. There seems to be very little unaltered portions of the core. We will be the first to log the core’s mineralogy, so more to come!
Cool Crystals
These zeolite growths are interesting.
08.10.2021
Day 2 collecting KMA core.
Early start to our day
A clear and quiet morning. Wild goats to be seen. A nice view of Mauna Kea from the army barracks
Cool stuff filling in vugs
A nice fresh face from a broken chunk of the drill core. These fuzzy textures weren’t apparent on the outside.
Conquering the KMA
~2000 + ft of the KMA collected. We were ahead of schedule. Decided to start on the Lanai core to get a head start.
08.09.2021
Day 1 at the PTA site. Getting through the first half of the KMA Drill Core. The KMA was drilled ~10km from PTA site but is stored on the PTA base.
Pallets of rock
Spent the morning obtaining passes to the army base and seeing how many pallets we will need to process. Decided to take measurements in the empty container for shelter from the elements.
Getting to work
Using the exoscan infrared spectrometer (field portable) to go through rows of rock. Each box contained ~10ft of drill core. We took measurements based on where the alteration is since we are trying to assess the subsurface environment.
Initial Findings
JAROSITES! Interesting find here. PTA was dominated by Fe/Mg Smectites, and Zeolites. The KMA, only being 10km away happened to not only be composed of different volcanic (mainly a’a flows), but we are starting to see different types of alteration. Jarosites and Fe Oxides…hmmm