Monday, April 8, 2013

Thank You to our visitors

My apologies for the lack of updates lately, things have been extremely busy here at the project.  Not only have we continued to get lots of rock core (now processed to a depth of 1848 ft), but today we also hosted some expert guest volcanologists.  Researchers from the Hawaii Volcano Observatory and the University of Hawaii at Manoa came to look at and help us interpret the rock.
 
Dr. Don Swanson was able to examine the finely bedded material that I had identified earlier on this blog as ash, and determine that it was actually a windblown sand deposit.  The characteristics of that sand were much like what he has seen in the field from sand dunes at Kilauea volcano.

Additionally, volcanologists Frank Trusdell and Dr. Nicole Lautze also provided valuable insight into the complex history of glaciation on Mauna Kea and the characteristics of different types of explosive fall deposits that we have sampled during this drilling project.  I would like to extend a sincere mahalo to all these visitors for their help and support, we now have a much better understanding of the complexities shown in the rocks we've recovered.  We look forward to your continued involvement in this project!  

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