Keck

One of the main things we did at the top of Mauan Kea was visit the W.M. Keck Observatories. We were up there as part of a self-drive tour, the guides were pretty damn knowledgeable, lots of interesting info was imparted.

Keck has two telescopes. Which can be used together for judging distances, like how we use two eyes, by processing how the background moves behind the object for the two separate images.  Its known as interferometry, though with my rudimentary knowledge of physics having a baseline of tens of metres for a pair of telescopes seems fairly pointless for the distances required.  For example, the second Gemini telescope is in Chile.  But these guys are probably better physicists than I am, so I trust them that they can make it work.

The inside of the Keck telescope, staring up at the back of the 10m primary mirrors, the second largest optical telescope mirrors in the world. The large primary mirror is actually 36 smaller hexagonal mirrors, each one can be controlled independantly and moved by microns every fraction of a second.  There is some amazing technology going on here. They keep the inside of the observatory refrigerated so that when they open the doors at night, there's no temperature difference. To go with an impressive telescope with impressive technology, there's also some impressive science going on here. At a cost to the user of just $50,000 a night. A snip! As you can imagine there's a long waiting list, for just for a couple of minutes on the telescope.

 The Keck twin telescopes at sunset.

Keck opens up for a night of stargazing.

Science, with altitude

Up on the top of Mauna Kea, the highest of the Hawaiian volcanoes theres some rather cool science going on.  With such little light pollution, generally clear skies, and being above a fair amount of the earth's atmosphere, the summit of Mauna Kea is an ideal place for studying the stars, and many of the world's best telescopes are to be found here.  We took a self-drive tour up to the top of the volcano to explore. At 4205m high its pretty damn tall, and we certainly felt the effects of the altitude. Even staying at the visitor's centre at 2800m for over an hour, didn't get rid of the issue, but it certainly helped.

 The UK infrared telescope. Its just looks so British compared to the sleek modern domes that surround it.

We went for a short walk that was very slow due to the altitude up to the actual summit, away from the telescopes. There was occasionally the reminder that this is indeed still a volcano, albeit now a dormant one. The top of the volcano is sacred to native Hawaiians and so there is often much debate as to how much presence the telescopes should have on top of the mountain. Its a very complicated issue and certainly not as straightforward as just the scientists moving into a sacred area.  The Hawaiians didn't care until their recent cultural awakening, though perhaps the scientists could have been more sensitive. Hawaiian culture is based on stargazing and navigation, so is this modern science just an extension of Hawaii's heritage.

We stayed up after the tour had finished (along with most people on it) to watch the sunset from the top.  It was spectacular.

 The Subaru telescope opens up at sunset.

 The Gemini telescope opens up for the night. The other one is in Chile. (Putting your telescopes far apart enables you to get a better idea of distances, just like having two eyes)

 The UK infrared telescope, along with a small horde of tourists up watching the sunset.

A nice view on the way down.  They force you off the top of the mountain pretty quickly after sunset so that the scientists can get to work. Headlights can really screw up their observations.

Saturn, viewed through a telescope.

But there's time for some stargazing back down at the visitor's centre.  In fact, due to the lack of oxygen at the mountain's summit the brain doesn't work so well at altitude.  Therefore the best place to view stars with the naked eye is at the visitor's centre, where they have viewings at the weekends (I'm guessing its still possible to "view" the stars during the week, but they have local amateur astronomers with their telescopes there at weekends and hot chocolate and the like!). Even if one of the guides giving a night sky talk was a little crazy with his science, the stars were incredible. Just so beautiful, and we got a good look at a planet or two through some of the telescopes. Pretty damn good!

Baby Rocks

As a geologist I'm fairly used to dealing with rocks that are millions, or hundreds of millions, and occasionally billions (I have held the hand-sample of the Jack Hills Conglomerate which contains the oldest minerals on Earth at 4.4 billion years old but thats another story!). But things on Hawaii are a little younger.

This is the youngest lava flow on Maui, known as the 1790 flow, because the maps of the island made in 1791 were different from those made by Captain Cook in the 1770s. It might actually be older than that, the maps may not be accurate.  But it was around then.

For the second part of the trip we moved on from the dormant volcano of Maui and onto the active volcanic island of Hawaii, also known as Big Island, when distinction is needed between the island and the chain of islands. We went to Kilauea volcano, the most active volcano on earth (unfortunately not spewing lava when we went) which have baby rocks (note: not a technical term), some only a few weeks old.  All together now: awwwwwww.

Hawaii is a shield volcano.  As the lava is so runny you don't get the iconic cone shapes that build up on more stereotypical volcanoes.  And they tend to erupt for longer periods of time.  As a result the lava spreads out over large distances, forming a shield shape.  This can mean that, in places the volcano isn't that tall and is relatively flat.  Kilauea is a bit like that, dwarfed by Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea above it which have built up higher as they are older volcanoes. This means its possible to cycle around Kilaeau National Park and go and see the sights by bike, rather than trapse around by car.  It was a well needed break from the car, and meant we got to on some of the tracks round the park where cars can't go and had some of the park to ourselves. Especially when we came across this on a lava flow that dates to just 1973 (or so).

 Its a volcano monitoring station. With super-accurate GPS units, gas monitoring, tilt-metres and the like, all designed to measure tiny changes in the volcano's shape and output that give little clues as to location and movement of magma deep below the ground.  This is how geologists predict eruptions!

Of course there are some parts of the park where you can't go.  Some due to current or potential volcanic activity, others because of past activity:

 I'm used to road cuts through rock providing useful geological outcrops.  But here the rock has revenge, the 1973 lava flow has reached the road here, and behind it has completely covered it over. How cool is that?!

 In the background above is the 1973 flow, in the foreground, part of the 1969 flow.  The crack running down the left with the trees next to it is the fissure from which the lava erupted.

 Me above the fissure!

 More views of recent lava flows

 The 1973 flow, barren, rocky, almost alien, but very very cool!

Paddy Melon

One of australia's non-native herbs. Useful for impromptu cricket games and throwing at things, but not eating as its very very bitter, and toxic too.

Not to be confused with the Pademelon, a group of seven small marsupials known as rat kangaroos.

photo from wikipedia

Tassie Trip: Cradle Mountain

In the wild west of Tasmania lies the real wilderness. While we didn't reach the far west, battered year-round by the roaring forties, we did visit Cradle Mountain (kind of on the east of the west!) for a day walk up one of Tasmania's most iconic mountains.  Its the start of the Overland Track, Australia's best multi-day walk, taking anywhere from three to nine days depending on which mountains you want to climb on the way, all self-sufficient so its pretty tough.  Two of my friends did it a few weeks before.  We considered it but really when you only have a week in Tasmania theres lots else to do.  Maybe one for the future. Anyway, we had an excellent day's hiking.

Crater lake. I assume its a crater lake, i didn't actually check, but that's it's name.

The approach to Cradle Mountain. Its 1,545m high.  But the plateau it rises from is about 1,100m and the carpark is at 900m so its a 600m climb or so.

However, the top is very rocky.  And involves a good thirty minutes of scrambling (which is a lot).  I love scrambling, its like being in an adventure playground for adults, you get to clamber and use your hands and its great fun.

Perfect weather for climbing mountains. Clear, warm.

Its a great fun mountain to climb.  I love it!

The view from the top is not half bad at all.

Barn Bluff, the next destination on the Overland track.  Probably in reach of a day's walk if you get up early enough!

Like a jaggedy Suilven.

Some pretty awesome skies on the way back down.

Tassie Trip: Freycinet Peninsula

As part of our trip to Tasmania we went walking on the Freycinet Peninsula on the east coast of the island.  It was warm, sunny and beautiful.  Perfect for a three day, two night walk and a chance to test out my brand-new shiny super-awesome tent.

Hazard's beach looking towards Mt. Freycinet.  It was really windy that afternoon and the waves were big and pounding

Cook's Beach. Camp for the first night was at the far end.

It had a nice view.

And sunset (though you shouldn't always trust the sunset pics from my camera, they're suspiciously good, often better than reality! it really emphasises reds and such)

The view from Mt. Freycinet out towards the Hazards with Wineglass Bay in front, beautiful.

 More nice views from the top.

MC's boot died a death on the trip, it only just made it round thanks to the power of paracord, bandages and plaster tape.

Wineglass Bay, camp for the second night.  A beautiful place.  Voted/rated one of the top ten beaches in the world according to some American magazine, the obvious authority. It was very very nice. With a stunning backdrop of the Hazards behind it and waves that broke almost perfectly round the curve of the beach.  I think the beach was shaped in a pretty much a perfect spiral (or part thereof) with an ever decreasing/increasing radius of curvature.

Novel engineering approaches for getting through a three day hike when the rubber midsole of your boot decides to disintergrate on the first day.

Eden

So I've spent the last week down on the coast around the town of Eden, close to the New South Wales/Victoria border (about three to four hours drive from Canberra, five taking the long route).  I was demonstrating on the first-year undergraduate field-course.  It was a lot of fun.  It was sunny all week, and warm, we spent most of it by the coast, frequently on nice beaches, a few swims in the ocean (much much warmer than a month ago!) and there were lots of interesting rocks.  But not too complicated, just difficult enough for me to work it out pretty quickly and the undergrads to puzzle over for a while! Plus there was some not so excellent, followed by excellent, followed by not so excellent followed by excellent cricket going on!

There were three of us postgrads demonstrating (myself, EG and BH - both of whom I get along very well with) along with a plethora of some big names in geology, which was rather cool. One thing that was disappointing was the undergrads reluctance to drink.  Having a beer or two during the evening session's lectures and work is pretty standard for geologists.  These kids need to learn! They were a good bunch really!

We finished the week by driving back up the coast for a beach party to celebrate LB's (another departmental first year grad) birthday.  And a good time was had by all. In the morning it decided to rain, so we fled back to Canberra, where it genuinely hasn't stopped raining since.  Its meant to be summer now.  Sigh!

Loads of photos, enjoy!