Justina Lange June 2013 Article One: Deep Magma Body Beneath the Summit and Rift Zones

of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii Because of Kilaueas repeated yet usually gentle eruptions, it is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and a hotspot for volcanological research and focus. Studies systematically began in 1912 and have continued since, contributing to advancement in understanding the volcano and its subsidence and extension. The top of the magma reservoir at the summit of the volcano is relatively shallow. It goes down about two kilometers below the surface and inflates slowly as basalt magma rises from its mantle source. But continuous motions at sites far from known magmatic reservoirs suggest that deformation is originating deep within Kilaueas structure. Magma can move toward the surface of the rift zones as long, narrow bladelike intrusions called dikes. During the history of the east rift zone, thousands of dikes have intruded into the axis of the zone, and many have reached the surface to contribute to triggering an eruption. Since 1970 there have been around thirty rift-zone dike injections, but only two have penetrated through the upper section of the east rift zone and two others have gone a further distance along the southwest rift zone. It is those four dike injections that have accounted for the major drainages of magma from the summit reservoir since 1975. Magma that erupts from Kilauea first rises through a deep magma conduit and enters a magma-storage reservoir beneath the summit area. Eruptions and shallow intrusions at the summit are fed directly by magma from this reservoir. Eruptions from

the east and southwest rift zones are supplied by magma that has moved from the summit reservoir into and along the rift zones through magma conduits. Knowledge of the overall size, shape, and extent of the conduits beneath the east rift zone is based on data collected by volcano-monitoring techniques during eruptions and intrusions along the east rift zone. Although the exact description of them is hard to identify, there is an overall general agreement of a deep and a shallow component to the magma conduits beneath the surface. Kilaueas primary near-surface structures such as the summit magma reservoir, two rift zones and fault systems, respond to the processes operating deep within the volcano. And vise-versa, the deep processes, like the seaward motion along the thrust system near the base of the south flank, interact with the well known shallow features of Kilauea. The article described how the proposed thinking that the shallow magma system discussed at the beginning may actually extend from the area of the molten core downward to the base of the volcano, has some data that supports the thinking, although there are still uncertainties. Measurements of surface changes on Kilauea since a 7.2 earthquake in 1975 show a pattern of deformation that is much more widespread than those deformation patterns caused by either recurrent inflation and deflation of the summit magma reservoir or periodic intrusions of dikes into the rift zones. Inflation of a magma system deeper than the molten core can account for the widespread deformation of Kilauea. The deformation pattern can, however, be explained in other ways, such as offshore faulting and folding of the seafloor. The cause of the deformation is currently the topic of intense research by HVO scientists.

Out of all five articles, this article was the most difficult to read and comprehend. Not only was intense volcanic vocabulary used, but descriptions were cluttered with large amounts of data and numbers that were thrown into paragraphs and onto small graphs and diagrams. It was a very advanced scientific article that took the most effort to decipher and understand. The article went into great depth to describe one of the earths most active volcanoes, Kilauea. Before reading, I knew absolutely nothing about the complex volcano, but afterwards I was overwhelmed with much information and data about it. I thought it was interesting to compare the shallow magmatic system of Kilauea to the other deep magmatic system and reservoirs. The deep magmatic system was responsible for many actions that interact with others associated with the well-identified shallow features. It is very difficult to fully understand and analyze the deep magmatic system that goes downward from the shallow system to the base of the volcanic pile nine to ten kilometers deep. It was very interesting to see how much information can be determined about one specific volcano, and how scientists can use results to help further knowledge about volcanic and seismic activity. It is important to do so, for the proposed deeper magma system is likely to lead to developing a better understanding of Kilaueas summit and rift zones. Further questions can be asked like what is the link between the continued uplift in Kilauea leading to large earthquakes. By examining data like this I learned that it is difficult to determine future destructive earthquakes, although the article mentions that data doesnt support the view that such an event can be expected in the near future.

Article Two: Hot Spots on the Earths Surface

An older theory of plate tectonics based on chemical composition that divided the upper earth into the crust and the mantle, does not match up with a modern day theory that divides the superficial regions of the earth into two layers. The outermost layer is the lithosphere, which is cold and rigid, and the only layer accessible to humans. It is broken into about a dozen plates where the continents are firmly anchored. The plates meet at the crests of the mid-ocean ridges, and at these points undersea volcanism adds new material to the plates as it pushes them apart. Oppositely, in subduction zones lithospheric plates are reabsorbed into the mantle where plates converge and overlap. The second layer in the modern theory of plate tectonics is the asthenosphere that is below the lithosphere. It is white hot and a solid that flows under stress. It is plate tectonics that allow hot spots to affect the earth and reversely allow hot spots to confirm the movement of plates. All but one percent of volcanism is associated with plate margins and is confined to those margins. The small percentage where volcanism does not lie on those margins are called hot spots. At least 122 hot spots have been active in the past ten million years. Hot spots lie deep in the interior of a plate and are distinguished by their very isolation, far from centers of seismic activity. Not only does the location of hot spots differ from normal volcanic activity, but also the lava in hot spots differs as well. They are composed of a larger amount of alkali metals along with similar basalts. The origin and creation process of hot spots is largely unknown, for any attempt to explain so must remain speculative. But interpreting the activity of hot spots is possible without the

knowledge of their origin, and hot spots contribute a lot to the earth surfaces appearance. One of the most well-known and easily identified hot spots is the one that has formed the Hawaiian Islands. The pacific plate that the islands are located on passed on course slowly over the hotspot; the plate carried off a trail of volcanoes of increasing age. Researchers have also noticed two other chains of Pacific Islands whose trend is parallel to that of the Hawaiian chain, whose islands become older toward the northwest as a result of the same plate motion. Researchers have also constructed models of motions of the plates around the earth that have the pacific plate moving in the direction to form the three chains from the one hot spot. This was made possible by the idea that plates rotate circularly around a pole that doesnt necessary have to pass through the plate itself. The greatest concentration of hot spots is found in Africa, which is surprising since the African plate constitutes twelve percent of the worlds surface but has thirtyfive percent of the worlds known hot spots. Although when looking at plate movement it can be difficult to tell if two plates are slowly separating or if one is separating and the other is stationary, hot spots have helped in distinguishing the two. They have shown that about thirty million years ago the African plate came to a rest, and has been stationary for the most part since. Hot spots also have helped distinguish whether an island arc is formed or a coastal mountain range, and act to initiate cycles of tectonic activity as well as being indicators of plate motion.

This article was very informative. Not only did I learn about the focus of the article, hot spots, but I also learned about plate tectonics, island chains, aulacogens, and other aspects of the way plates on the earths surface work. This article had very helpful pictures, graphs, and diagrams that made the explanations easier to understand and visualize, since I am more of a visual learner. It was fascinating to learn about how exactly the Hawaiian Islands that we are going to were made. The one hot spot underneath the Pacific plate was responsible for creating the island chain as the plate slowly moved and created a chronological progression of the islands getting older towards the northwest. I thought it was also interesting how two other island chains matched up to the northwest pattern of the Hawaiian Islands. The article described how different researchers took that information and applied it to develop models to describe how the plates on the earths surface were moving, based on information from the hot spot that created the island chains, and already previously known information. This article also effectively described not only what hot spots are, but how useful they are in contributing to the advancement in understanding of other aspects of plate tectonics. The hot spots have provided a method for translating relative lithosphereic plate movement, and they also act to initiate cycles of tectonic activity. Many rhetoric questions were asked in the article, and then the author described how hot spots can help answer the questions that were previously unanswerable. So not only do hot spots play a crucial role in the development and appearance of the earths surface, but they also help further scientific knowledge about hot spots effects on the earths plates and plate tectonics itself.

Article Three: The Lava Lakes of Kilauea

Magma contributes to many phenomena that occur both below and above the earths surface. The flow of magma out of the mid-ocean rifts adds to and pushes apart the rigid plates on the earths surface and forms all igneous rocks. Magma erupted at the surface forms extrusive igneous rocks like basalt, and slowly crystallizing magma below the surface forms intrusive igneous rocks like granite. Instead of focusing on magma study centered on laboratory analysis of small samples, the group the author is in examined three large lakes of lava that were left in the wake of eruptions of the volcano Kilauea. The three lakes they studied had many similarities and differences. All three lakes were filled with basaltic lava, the most common rock formed by the solidification of magma and found on all continents. Basaltic lavas erupting from mid-ocean rifts create the floor that underlies the sediments of the ocean basins. All basalts are formed at extremely high temperatures, and come from deep inside the earths mantle. Lava lakes are formed when lava erupts to the surface from a reservoir and flows into a depression. Once the natural dikes that channel the lava into the lake collapse, the lake is cut off from the lava source and starts to solidify. The three lakes in the investigation were formed in different years: 1959, 1963, and 1965. They also vary in depth, the Alae lava lake being the shallowest. It is also poor in olivine, compared to the Iki lava lake in which the abundant magnesium oxide favored the formation of a lot of olivine. The researchers examined the three different lakes by drilling many holes into them and performing tests and measurements on each samples. The samples enabled them to

reconstruct the history of the crystallization of the lakes, showing as the temperature of the lake decreases the crystal formation increases. The three lakes were similar in composition, but vastly different in chemical makeup and composition of gases expelled from the lava in them. A lava lake solidifies from top down, due to cooling from air and a large amount of rainfall, as well as bottom up, due to the rock under a lava lake being cooler than the molten lava. This results in a sandwich between two layers of solidified crust and forms the shape of a lens. The rate of thickening of both the top and bottom crusts decreases with time because the solidified material is a poor conductor of head and acts as an insulator. Their studies showed that the rate of increase in thickness to be proportional to the square root of time until the maximum temperature in the lake falls below the initial temperature at the center of the lake, and they were able to develop a numerical model for predicting the temperature at any depth in a lava lake. The model was confirmed by testing it on the top crust of the Alae lava lake. Because magma is formed at such high temperatures, many people wonder about the feasibility of obtaining geothermal energy directly from deep bodies of basaltic magma, like in the lava lakes of Kilauea. Although it is an attractive source of energy, many obstacles stand in the way of tapping its heat. Methods have to be developed for finding a magma body and determining its size, shape, depth, and heat content, and techniques for drilling would need to be tested and perfected. The investigation on the three lava lakes in Kilauea was not focused on using the lakes as a source of power though.

This article was very research oriented. It was fascinating to see how by examining the lava lakes of Kilauea, so much information was able to be determined about magma and about the features of the lakes themselves. I liked reading about the different tests the team preformed, and what conclusions they were able to draw from them. Most interestingly, they were able to develop a numerical model for predicting the temperature at any depth in a lava lake. I thought the combination of science and mathematics in this article was very intriguing because those are the two subjects I wish to do work with in my future. It was important how the team investigated three lava lakes, as opposed to only doing research on one. Because the three lakes varied in many aspects, different information was derived from each lake because of their differences. I also got to learn about different instruments used to record data in the lava lakes, like when the team measured the viscosity of the lava. The graphs of the data collected were also nice in order to have a visual representation of data and information that was being described in the article. I also was intrigued by the thought of obtaining geothermal energy from the deep bodies of basaltic magma. The article only mentioned it briefly because their investigation of the lakes were entirely for experimental purposes, but as time goes on I wonder if this source of energy will be further explored and tested. Since the search for alternative sources of energy is growing, I think scientists will look at finding ways around the obstacles of tapping the energy from deep within lava sources.

Article Four: On the Cutting Edge of Extinction

This article was a more narrative informative piece that switches from Steve Yates describing his adventures as he tours different parts of Hawaii to him explaining different threats to the existence of birds, plants, and the environment in Hawaii. He first focuses on forest birds, whose populations for the most part have been reduced to small groups hanging on in remote upper elevation rainforests like Kipahulu, one of Hawaiis most remote valleys and a home to many rare plants and birds. Within a five mile semi circle in the valley live most of the endangered Hawaiian finches on the island of Maui. Hawaiian finches are a very good example of adaptive radiation, and range from type to type with different beaks and diet preferences. The assumption that the first Hawaiians had little impact on the islands plants and animals has been proved to be a myth. They hunted many animals, built a system of fishponds, burned most of the lowland dry forests, and exploited many of the islands natural resources. Unfortunately this exploitation still exists today. Much previously uncultivated wet forest was converted to sugar cane, and remnant koa forests are still bulldozed for many reasons. But humans are not the only threat to the Hawaiian Islands environment and native species. Alien animals and plants also cause a big threat. Pigs and goats, first given as gifts from Captain Cook and Vancouver on the first visits to the shores, turn Hawaiis last native alpine grasslands into a weedy pasture and the montane bogs into muddy pig wallow. They erode native shrubland, and native plants and animals cannot defend themselves against the threat. Plants whose ancestors had thorns, needles, and

other defense mechanisms placed their energy elsewhere, because those were unneeded. Now freed from winters and predators, and presented with defenseless vegetation, alien animals like pigs, goats, axis deer, pronghorns, black-tailed deer, bighorned mouflon sheep, and many others are causing big problems. Attempts to rid certain environments of these pests and other problems are very difficult and do not have a high success rate. Sport hunting can be a viable method of animal control but few hunters venture far from the more safe roads or trails. Control with toxicants is politically improbable, and control with introduced disease is also not a viable option. Fencing, hunting, traps, and snares are left as the most probable options, yet are extremely arduous, labor intensive, and time-consuming. A failed attempt to get rid of roof rats in 1883 was described when mongoose were brought to Hawaii from India. At first the mongoose tore into the rats but as time went on they soon moved to other prey of native birds and plants. Yates also describes many endangered bird species that live in Hawaii and reveals their staggering fall in population and struggle to maintain population. He concludes the article by explaining steps he thinks are necessary to help avoid extinction of Hawaiis native endangered species. Acts like removing feral animals and exotic plants from preserves or expanding research efforts and educating islanders and visitors about the value of Hawaiis natural heritage are not easy or cheap. Yet without these steps being taken many of the endangered bird and plant species will not be seen again.

This article was skillfully narrated and written. The picturesque descriptions of the remote valleys and views the author experienced in Hawaii were effectively delivered with beautiful diction and rhetorical devices. The imagery made me feel like I was there with the author looking out to a treasure trove of rare species and sights. The descriptions were nicely paralleled with factual data and informational anecdotes to support the authors opinion that the endangered native species are struggling to survive and help is needed in preserving them. I also liked how the article was separated in different sections based on different islands. That way it was easy to understand what the problems on each island were, and it was interesting to see how each island had both similar and different problems with alien species and in conservation efforts. The descriptions of the scenery in each section made me even more excited to go explore the islands on the trip. The author talked about many endangered species and the story of their decline was very shocking. He talks about the nene, last of many goose species in Hawaii as well as the state bird, the palila, which once was widely distributed throughout the island but now its range has shrunk to about thirty square miles, and many others. Yates effectively argues for heroic action to help these species, which I think is justifiably important. I agreed with many of the steps he said needed to be taken to do so. One of them said to educate islanders and visitors to the value of Hawaiis natural heritage, and by reading this article as well as the other four, we are doing just that. Through education and expanded research efforts much needed actions and results will be able to be carried out and even though conserving the Hawaiian ecosystem will be arduous and costly, it is worth it to save the dying native species.

Article Five: Comparing Conservation Biology of Oceanic Archipelagoes

This article compared alien species effects on the similarly isolated islands of Hawaii and the Galapagos. Because isolated oceanic islands are crucial to evolutionary biology studies, conservation of these unique biomes is very important. Both the Hawaiian Islands and the Galapagos islands are of volcanic origin and are roughly similar in size. Differences lie in the two islands age, habitat density, topographic diversity, human population density, susceptibility to destruction, and other aspects. Surprisingly, Hawaii has lost over 75 percent of its original endemic land bird population while the Galapagos is not known to have lost a single land bird species. Alien and harmful species and plants inhabit both islands. Goats have been present and have damaged both areas through browsing and trampling. Goats have been eliminated from six of the islands of the Galapagos, and in Hawaii goat-proof fencing has had successful results, yet is labor intensive and costly. Similarly, pigs are also harmful to both islands. They not only damage vegetation but also dig up eggs of native species, such as tortoises in the Galapagos. Pigs in Hawaii spread alien plants, increase erosion and nutrient losses, and create depressions that collect standing water and breed birdmalaria. The environment is also susceptible to introduced rodents and carnivorous mammals in both islands. Rats, feral dogs, mongoose, and many others are the source of the declining populations of native species. Both islands have used poisons or dropbait toxicants for these harmful mammals. Fortunately, the mongoose has not been introduced to the Galapagos.

Little is known about the systematic of soil organisms of oceanic islands and even less is known about their biology. Yet a big problem is due to alien arthropods, especially ants, which are known for their contribution to the extinction of native species. Their devastating effects are more so in Hawaii due to the fact that Hawaiis arthropods evolved without predation by ants. In the Galapagos the fire ant population on one island was successfully diminished by burning and poisoning, after the fire ant was responsible for significantly reducing local spider and scorpion species. Also, avian disease is a serious problem in Hawaii and a potential one in the Galapagos. By examining the causes and effects in Hawaii, scientists can take caution in preventing the same problem to arise in the Galapagos. Hawaii is unfortunately more susceptible to alien species largely due to the vastly greater amount of potential invaders that have been introduced there by humans and it is more problematic because a much larger area has been disturbed. This is partly because there is much greater volume and variety of transportation to Hawaii that results in more potential alien colonizers. Also, the biotic interrelationships of Hawaii are much more complex, so disruption in the simplistic ones of the Galapagos is less destructive and irreversible. The endemic Hawaiian flora is more highly vulnerable to pollinator loss than that of the Galapagos as well. The struggle to conserve the largely damaged areas in both islands is very difficult. Because of the significance of oceanic island ecosystems, effort to find solutions to the conservation of them is highly important.

The comparison between the Hawaiian and Galapagos islands in this article was very interesting. I didnt realize how similar the two islands were, in the sense that both are perfect for studying evolutionary processes and how alien species affect an island that has been in isolation for so long. Due to Hawaii being significantly older, larger in human population, and having more complex habitat diversity, those islands are more prone to the damaging effects of alien species. It is fascinating how the introduction of one foreign animal or plant species can have such a significant impact on the entire islands environment and native species. One of the most shocking data to me from this article was when it described how a fisherman brought one male and two female goats to the Galapagos in 1959 and then by 1970 the goat population was around ten thousand, and had eliminated four native plant species and dramatically reduced the population of many others. The comparison of how each island deals with each feral species was also very interesting. While some methods worked on the Galapagos, like hunting and shooting the goats, others were more effective in Hawaii, like building goat-proof fencing. By examining the effects on one island it can help prevent and control problems on the other. This is seen with avian disease, where its a problem in Hawaii but not in the Galapagos. By investigating it in Hawaii scientists can take caution to prevent or control an avian disease outbreak in the Galapagos. These two islands are both an isolated paradise, and a living scientific laboratory to investigate many aspects of environmental and evolutionary science. These oceanic island ecosystems will become unavailable if major action and effort is not taken to conserve and preserve them.