Can a Hawaii based diver do me a non-diving favor?

jbark · Oct 20, 2013

Hi all,

I am a professor at a community college and among the courses that I teach is geology. Each semester when we talk about volcanism the topic of lavas come up. My students always want to see the difference between AA and Pahoehoe.

Any chance one of you would be able to collect a sample of each and mail it to me? I would of course send you the postage, and a t-shirt from the college as a thank you gift.

If you could help out it would be great.

thanks
Jerry

DennisS · Oct 20, 2013

Whoa!! Bad juju taking lava rocks off the island. Pele will not be happy.snopes.com: Pele and Lava Rocks

knotical · Oct 20, 2013

By way of passing the buck, you might want to contact someone from the geology faculty at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo:
Geology Faculty

Im not confident in my ability to differentiate nor that I could find a ready source of pāhoehoe.

My understanding of ʻaʻā and pāhoehoe is they are very similar except for the outer surface/texture.

DiveMaven · Oct 20, 2013

For sure it's bad luck to send any part of Pele off island. I wouldn't risk angering her!

fisheater · Oct 20, 2013

Hint: Have it sent to your department's bete noir, the one who's always a PITA at department meetings. ;-)

Barrod · Oct 20, 2013

Here are some pictures for you - I didn't take a single speck back to the mainland - as beautiful as Pele was all I have are pictures.

PEDiamond · Oct 20, 2013

Dennis S: I laughed when I read your reply cause it was word for word what I was thinking: to the OP: it is considered very bad form to take volcanic rocks away from their site, a major insult to the goddess Pele, and if you are a non-believer, a major insult to the culture....aloha....peter

acooper · Oct 21, 2013

Odd story... Many years ago, as a kid, I picked up samples of fresh basalt from weeks old flows near Kalapana. I loved and collected rocks, the pieces were beautiful. Those pieces traveled quite a few places, Oregon, Arizona, even England with me, but are now back on the island. They returned when I returned to live here.

jbark · Oct 21, 2013

Thanks for the education on local culture. I did not know.

BTW knoticle they are the same mineral wise, the difference is in the surface texture caused by the slope of the ground over which the lava is flowing at the time of deposition.

I will seek out another source for the samples, there is plenty of pahoehoe in new mexico near my father's house, so next time I visit there I will take a drive up to the site and grab a sample. There may be aa there as well, I'll have to hike around and look. I figure it's much safer to anger the national park service.

Thanks again.
Cheers,
Jerry

knotical · Oct 21, 2013

Despite folks who believe in the superstition, some of the faculty/students at the university do regularly take samples. I don't know if they supply them to other educational institutions, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Can a Hawaii based diver do me a non-diving favor?

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