The Hawai'i That Was: Why Should We Care?

Lapakahi State Park on the Big Island is the remains of an ancient fishing village that was occupied for hundreds of years. Not a single plant in the picture is native to Hawai'i.

In a lot of ways, a post like this is how one might wrap up a series. The problem is that I can't say exactly where we will be or what we will have discovered by the time I've determined that this blog series is completed! I can certainly talk about why I had the idea, and maybe I'll find some guidance as we move forward in this exploration.

I can say that Hawai'i is very special to me. California is far and away the most interesting place in the world, what with the Sierra Nevada, the coasts, the deserts and all the other fascinating landscapes, but Hawai'i to me is an incredible place that I am privileged to visit only on special occasions. There are so many mysteries on the islands that I haven't had the time to explore. But there is something more. There is a sense of wildness about the place that I don't feel often in my many travels.

The Ha'upu Range. Kaua'i can certainly look foreboding from some directions.

I think it has to do the isolation and remoteness of the place. The Hawaiian Islands were among the last, if not the last significant landmasses to be colonized by human beings in the world. It's been only a few dozen generations that it was the last wild place on the planet,  It has been significantly altered by human activity, but there are still remnants of that primeval world that still exist today. You will never find it in a high-rise hotel at Waikiki, but the pieces are there if you know where to look.

An 'Apapane, one of the few native Hawaiian birds that is not in imminent danger of extinction.

At the same time there is a newness about the Hawaiian Islands. Not a single piece of land in the eight major islands is older than 6 million years. Essentially all of the Big Island is less than a million years old. There is a lava flow near my home in California. It erupted 9-10 million years ago, and while it has been altered by erosion, it still looks relatively "recent". And yet in the time since that lava flow in California, eight major islands grew, reached great heights, and then eroded. Literally thousands of species of plants and animals evolved in that short period of time. Many existed for a time, and then went extinct, sometimes by the hand of humans, and sometimes not.

Pu'uhonua o Honaunau, the place of refuge. If you violated kapu, you had a chance at life if you could make it here.

There are really two Hawaiian Islands that were: the islands before the Polynesians, and the islands of the Polynesians. They were then changed forever in 1778 when Captain Cook "discovered" the islands and their people. The changes in the intervening 238 years have been mostly catastrophic, both for the natural landscape and for the Native Hawaiians. It's only been in the last few decades that people have tried to recover pieces of the past before they were completely gone.

'Ahu'ena Heiau, the last "palace" of King Kamehameha in 1819. It's now surrounded by the bustling city of Kona, with luaus next door two nights a week!

We learn from history. We are often far too ignorant of our dependence on the land and resources, and forget that they can be abused and wasted. All human societies alter the landscapes that they occupy to increase their chances for survival, and some are more successful than others. The Polynesians who discovered the islands brought with them plants and animals they knew would insure their future, and for more than a thousand years they lived within the limits of the land. That is no longer the case today. Meeting the needs of 1.4 million people on the islands requires a huge amount of energy. Can you imagine the chaos if the ship and plane traffic were disrupted for any length of time?

So Hawai'i is beautiful. But it is also a living laboratory that has much to tell us about geology, ecology, evolution, and anthropology. And that is why we were there for much of the last two weeks, students of geology and archaeology, learning what we could in the short time that we had. The story of our journey begins in the next post.

The July Accretionary Wedge: Why I'm Teaching Geology

The latest Accretionary Wedge deadline has come and gone, and as usual I am a day late. A big thank you to Volcanista, our host this month, who has suggested the topic of our inspiration to enter the geosciences. I have talked about my inspirations a couple of times in previous posts, but I don't think I have told the whole story yet in one place.

Volcanista is certainly right about the idea that few people enter college thinking to major in geology or other earth sciences, and the reason is obvious: earth science does not receive the appropriate respect or emphasis as a science in the elementary and secondary school systems. In my ancient days earth science was simply not offered at all. Today in California, earth science is usually taught in ninth grade as kind of a bonehead science course. I am thankful to know a number of teachers who labor in the trenches, making the science come alive for their students. But by the time any of their students make it through their senior year, they have forgotten anything they loved about the science.

And so it was that I found my inspiration elsewhere. I, like any kid, was fascinated with dinosaurs and fossils, but as far as we knew in the 1960's, no one made a career out of paleontology. The dinosaurs were extinct, and so were the people who found them. They were historical figures from the late 1800's or the 1920's. It was in those days before Jurassic Park and paleontology rock stars.

When I was an eight-year-old there was a guy, Mr. Ritchie (I guess it makes me old, but we called big people Mr. or Mrs. in the day) down the street who had a really nice mineral collection. He would let the neighborhood kids look at his displays and I was fascinated by their symmetry and color. I spent hours digging in my backyard for crystals, and I especially loved a box of minerals left behind by a previous owner at our house. Even today I know there were sulfur and galena specimens in there because I recall the odor every time I work on the specimens in my lab.

Later in life (two years later), I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time, and as recounted in my blogpost a few weeks ago, I found my first fossils. I was hooked, but didn't know it yet. I still didn't realize that there was a science called geology that went along with astronomy and chemistry and those other cool fields.

High school was a fog and a near total loss as far as science was concerned (I did dissect a grasshopper and a pregnant perch, and probably am still adversely affected by the formaldehyde). I was in the scouts though, and learned to love topographic maps and orienteering. I also spent every available weekend hiking all over the mountains of Southern California and the eastern Sierra Nevada. I still didn't know I would be a geologist. It worked something like natural selection: I had the interest (crystals and fossils), and I had some of the basic skills (maps and compasses), I just hadn't found the field in which the skills and interests would be useful. Once I entered the correct situation, those pre-adaptations allowed me to survive! It happened when I entered the community college system in California.

My first quarter at Chaffey College included a class in Earth Processes with Rod Parcel (who passed away a number of years ago). I realized that maybe I was onto something. The next quarter I took a class in Earth Materials with Marlin Dickey, and at the same time I took a course on the geology of the Grand Canyon that included a week-long field trip into the incredible gorge. Some of my adventures are chronicled here and here. From the day I walked out of the canyon, I was hooked for good.

Given the tragic economic situation in California right now, our community college system is in a world of hurt, and I want to give a voice of support for how they support our state economy, and at the same time provide incredible opportunities for our citizens. They are not costly, and they provide an academic path to success that many people would otherwise miss if the system didn't exist. And so it was for me.

Geology and Politics: Trying to Get Back To Normal...

A kind of 'mini-meme' developed in the last few days as many geobloggers from the U.S. (and a few others, I'm sure) were carefully watching the returns from the presidential elections. It has involved the relationship of geology to politics.


Brian at Clastic Detritus noticed a correspondence between counties who increased their Republican vote, and the location of the Appalachian Orogen. No geologic explanation for the Arizona vote is clear, however.


Eric at Dynamic Earth noted some shocking deficiencies on the part of one of the candidates on her ignorance of Africa and the signatories to NAFTA (the North America Free Trade Agreement; there are only three countries in North America to choose from...). Admittedly, this post is more about geography, but there is a 'geo' in there. [UPDATE: I sort of fail the "three countries in NA; there are quite a few island nations and territories, i.e. Greenland, Bermudas, etc. that are included with North America. I was thinking in continental terms]

Callan Bentley at NOVA Geoblog has a link to a map of the US that is tied not to geography, but to the proportion and influence of voters. If you thought the election was crazy, this map is on drugs. BTW, way to go Virginia!

In my last post I was using a flood analogy to express my hopes for the outcome of the election, talking also of landslides and tsunamis. It gave me this great idea of blogging on the use of geologic terms in describing politics and other social phenomena. I started to develop the idea in more detail, and then happened upon Lee Allison's Arizona Geology blog. He beat me to the punch in a big way: check it out here, and here. Lee also has a couple of great posts on politicians who started out as geologists, here and here. I had no idea that Colin Powell had a geology degree, but I bet it helped during the planning for the first Iraq war. Herbert Hoover I knew about; I remember reading a story of his fight for reimbursement from the USGS:

"A favorite story deals with his job as disbursing officer for a United States Geological Survey party. When a pack mule was found dead, the rules required Hoover and two witnesses to investigate the cause of death. They found a loose hind shoe caught in the animal's neck halter. So they reported that it had broken its neck while scratching its head with a hind foot. The bureau in Washington refused to accept this “tall story,” and charged the party $60 for the lost animal. From that time on Hoover watched mules to confirm the fact that they could scratch their heads with a hind foot."

I hope this gets the politics out of my system for now. I know I am sick and need help; this morning I actually clicked on this:

http://www.pollster.com/blogs/marist_matchups_for_the_2012_p.php

Go ahead, I dare you.....

Today's photo represents change happening "at a glacial pace", and shows the Saskatchewan Glacier in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. It has a source in the Columbia Icefield, and along with the Athabasca Glacier shows the effects of global warming, having retreated over a mile in the last century.

Why I Teach...Part 2

The massive steel airlock swung open, revealing a long dark passageway. We cautiously stepped into the darkness. The swift change from dry desert air into the damp interior of the cave came as a shock. The thermometer read 78 degrees, but it felt 15 degrees hotter. Sweat began to trickle down my back. It was an uncomfortable moment, but it quickly passed as I began to see the wonders that lay within. Due to the generosity of our colleagues in the Southwest Section, I was attending a special tour of Kartchner Caverns in the desert of southern Arizona near Tucson. It was a unique and strange experience.

(Note: I would LOVE to show you the many spectacular pictures I took while in the cave, but we all had to sign a promise that we would not disseminate our pictures; I'm keeping that promise, but I hope they don't mind if I show the OUTSIDE of the cave. That picture follows)

The caverns were discovered in the 1970’s, but their existence was kept a highly-guarded secret, so that they would not suffer the kind of vandalism and damage that is the fate of so many other caverns throughout the world. Following intense negotiations, the Arizona state legislature approved the formation of a state park without exactly knowing what it was that they were protecting. The philosophy that guides the park is that the caverns should be maintained in as close to their pristine original condition as is possible, while allowing visitors to see the spectacular features inside. To accomplish this, airlocks were installed to maintain the near 100% humidity (difficult in the desert environment), and trails were constructed carefully to protect the incredibly delicate cave formations. It is quickly evident that apart from the constructed walkways, human feet have never touched most of the cave surfaces. In short, a visit to the cavern is not so much a spelunking expedition, but rather a museum tour.

I don’t want that to sound like a negative observation. Few of us will ever have the opportunity to see a more pristine cavern in our lives, and few in the world are as nicely decorated as Kartchner, with all manner of helectites, soda straws, shields, and other rarely seen and easily destroyed features. Wandering through the passageways, I could sense what it must been like to discover a new cavern, and in doing that, I had just mentally checked off another of the items on my own geologist’s life list.

The life list? Many of you may remember an excellent article in the April 1990 issue of Geotimes by Lisa Rossbacher about the places in the world that all geologists should try to see in their lifetimes (A modified version of the list can be found at http://www.uc.edu/geology/geologylist/). Though not explicitly stated, it was also an acknowledgement that our life experiences can have a powerful influence on our teaching success. I hate to say it, but I used to speak somewhat blandly in my classes about Hawaii and hot spot volcanism until I had the experience of standing in front of an advancing basalt flow near Pu’u ’O’o a few years ago. Today I get excited telling others of the experience. I found and held fossils of the Burgess Shale fauna, as related in my last note. My historical geology classes are being transformed as a result. But lately I have started to feel a sense of urgency. The years are rolling by and there are too many places on my list that I haven’t been to yet. Committee work and curriculum planning chews up a lot of the hours of our lives, and though these things are important in their own way, I’m left feeling afraid that we might be getting behind in what really counts in our own lives as teachers and scientists.

But what’s even more profound, and more important in the long run, is that we are the portals through which our students are going to start their own geological journeys. Even if we can’t always take them directly, we transport them to these unexplored places with our pictures, our words, and our enthusiasm. Their view of the geological world begins with your experience. Are you behind on your own life list? How are you going to catch up?

Welcome to Geotripper!

I hope that this blog will be a clearinghouse for information on geology, earth science education, and the exploration of the beautiful places of the earth! It will take some time for me to get used to the format, so posts will be infrequent at first, but I am looking forward to communicating with you about the issues facing the geological community and the education system.

Since discovering digital photography, I have been taking thousands of pictures of geological features and interesting places, and I will be posting some of them here as well. (Added 2012) If you would like to see some of my photo collections, please check out the photo gallery on my website at http://geotripperimages.com/.

If you happen to run across this site and want to comment, please do so!