Author: cholbrook

Good morning! It’s our last full day here in Hawaii, and I’m writing this from the pool deck at our hotel here in Kona. Yesterday was quite a day, as I was finally able to share my topic with the group – xenoliths!

A xenolith is a rock that is trapped in/a part of another, different rock. It can occasionally be trapped in a sedimentary rock, but usually it’s in an igneous rock (a rock got trapped in magma and then the magma cooled around it). This normally happens when the current from the magma flowing below the earth’s crust is strong enough that a piece of the mantle breaks off and starts flowing with the magma.

The xenoliths we saw yesterday were from Hualālai’s 1800-1801 alkalic lava flows, which are actually famous for their unusually high quantities of xenoliths. We saw lots of olivine, peridotite, pyroxenite, and gabbro xenoliths. Some of them were from the mantle, but most of them were formed by built-up amounts of the minerals that crystallized from the magma before it erupted.

It was super cool to see the xenoliths and share what I had learned with everyone, and afterwards we each did a creative presentation that had something to do with Hawaii. We did a rap song – the lyrics are below – and the other group put on a skit! It was so much fun.

– Caroline

This is a bit of a belated post, but the other day while it was raining in Hilo (and had been for about a full 24 hours), a group of us took an impromptu trip back to Rainbow Falls with our TA, Katie, to see how the rain changed the flow of the river. When we got there, it was crazy to see how much faster the water was flowing than it had been the first time we visited. The color of it had also drastically changed – instead of being a greenish blue color, it looked almost like chocolate milk! Katie explained that this is because the faster-moving water picks up a lot more sediments from the riverbed and carries them in the current.

We also got to see an ephemeral stream, which is a stream that only has water flowing through it sometimes, such as when it’s been raining for a while. It was really neat, especially because it hadn’t had any water flowing through it the first time we visited. All in all, even though I got soaked (apparently my raincoat isn’t meant to withstand anything more than a sprinkle), it was a super fun excursion and it was so cool to see how the rain changed the waterfall’s behavior!

– Caroline

Mom and Dad – if you’re reading this, you should be so proud of me!

I’m normally an incredibly picky eater, but on this trip I’m making an effort to try as many new foods as I can, and today was quite a demonstration of that! We went to the Hilo Farmer’s Market, and it was so neat to walk around and see not only all of the different fruits and vegetables that we can’t get back home, but also all of the different things that local artists have made. I walked around for a while with Grace and Margot and ended up buying a shirt that was hand printed from a carved block of vinyl – so cool! – as well as a pound each of rambutan and longan to try. I didn’t love the longan, but I did really like the rambutan!

Afterwards, several of us walked over to the L&L nearby. Kaden said it was his favorite Hawaiian “fast food”, so of course we had to try it! While we were waiting for our food, I had the chance to try coconut water, and while I didn’t love it, it wasn’t bad. I got a barbecue chicken plate, which came with barbecue chicken, rice, and macaroni salad, and they were all very good. I had never had macaroni salad before, but I didn’t hate it!

When we got back to the airbnb this evening, I was also able to try a lychee and “ice cream bean”. The lychee was alright – not as good as the rambutan but better than the longan – but I did not like the ice cream bean. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed these opportunities to try new foods and experience more of the Hawaiian culture!

– Caroline

Good morning and happy Saturday! Yesterday was such a long day, but it was also incredibly rewarding. We left our airbnb at 9:30 am to head over to South Point, the southernmost point of the entire United States. We stopped for gas on the way and Kaden taught us all about Mauna Pua, a Portuguese sweet bread filled with chop suey pork. It wasn’t my favorite, but I was still pleasantly surprised by it! We then finished the drive down to South Point and parked in the parking lot so we could hike down to Papakōlea, one of only four green sand beaches in the world!

It was a 2.8 mile hike to get there, but it was fairly flat and the views were gorgeous the entire way. Once we got there, we ate our sandwiches and dipped our toes in the water before exploring the cliffs on the side of the beach. We looked at the different layers of rock that make up the cliffs and used them to create a stratigraphic column, or a column that shows different rock layers in order to see how the geology of an area has changed over time. It was super cool, and afterwards we were able to swim for a little while before heading back!

On the way back to our airbnb, we stopped for dinner at this place called Thai Thai. I got chicken pad thai, and we all got shirley temples! It was so much fun, but by the time we got back to our airbnb at 8:30 pm, I was so tired that I just took a shower and went right to sleep.

That’s all for yesterday! Thanks for following along!

– Caroline

Good morning from Hilo! It’s currently 7:00 am here and I’m writing this from the living room of our airbnb. We had a busy day yesterday – we left the house at 8 am and didn’t come back until almost 5 pm!

We started out with the Kilauea Iki hike. It was about 3.5 miles in total, and we both saw some amazing views of the crater and walked right through it! We stopped several times throughout the hike to learn about the history of the caldera and its collapse, as well as take some awesome photos.

After that, we walked through the Thurston lava tube. It was chilly, dark, and damp inside, but it was so neat! That was one of my favorite parts of the day. Kaden took this photo of me as we entered it – you can really see how excited I was:

Then, we were all so hungry and it was almost noon, so we walked back to the vans and got our lunch. We couldn’t eat some of the bread because it was already moldy (thanks Walmart), but it was still super tasty – I had some turkey, cheese, an apple, a bit of candy, and a lot of potato chips. When we were done eating, we walked around the Volcano House art gallery and the rest of the gift shops. I bought some cool volcano socks and a bunch of postcards to give to my friends when we get home!

After that, Aiden taught us more about the caldera before we headed down the road to see and learn about the sulphur banks and steam vents. Those were also really neat – I enjoyed learning about the chemical processes that the rocks go through! We then headed back towards Hilo and our airbnb, but stopped at Rainbow Falls and a massive bunyan tree, which was SO cool. It’s thousands of years old and super impressive. Here’s a photo:

We then came back to our airbnb, and a bunch of us went across the street to the beach to snorkel and kayak around. I learned how to snorkel and swam around with a bunch of fish for a while – SO cool! – and also kayaked around for a little bit with Van. The water is so clear here, it’s amazing. Then we had dinner (pasta with meatballs and garlic bread) and started Teen Beach Movie, but we got so tired that we went to bed before we could finish it. All in all, it was an awesome day, and I’m excited for what today will bring!