The opening reception will be held at 5:30 p.m. today. Following the announcement of the winners for the art show, Jim Kauahikaua, HVO scientist-in-charge, will give a brief introduction to HVO’s exhibits, and Tim Orr, HVO geologist, will give a 45-minute talk and image show of the three eruptions of 2011. Admission is free.
On Jan. 17, 1912, Thomas A. Jaggar made the first record that began continuous volcano monitoring at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
To commemorate a century of observations of volcanic activity, HVO is presenting exhibits of historical and current eruptions and monitoring in the East Hawaii Cultural Center’s Makai and Mauka galleries from today through Jan. 28.
The Makai Gallery exhibit will feature rarely seen illustrations from the Volcano House Register, the guest book of the Volcano House Hotel, in which visitors, from laypersons to scientists, wrote and illustrated their observations.
Oramel H. Gulick presented the hotel with a guest book in 1865, inviting travelers to “note all, or any, volcanic phenomena that may come under their notice. … By so doing, this record may become of great value, some years hence, to the scientific world.”
Early depictions of volcanic activity, once thought to be fanciful, reaffirm our current understanding of volcanic activity and phenomena. The earliest photographs of eruptions and volcanic features are invaluable records of past conditions. As a fledgling science, volcanology did not have instruments specially designed for volcano monitoring, so scientists rigged up ingenious methods of observing and obtaining the measurements they needed. The exhibit includes the earliest structures of HVO as Jaggar struggled to continue monitoring the activity through the Depression and the war years.
The Mauka Gallery exhibit will include revolving image shows and time-lapse camera footage of the Pu’u ‘O’O, Halema’uma’u, and Kamoamoa fissure eruptions in 2011. Images of the different types of monitoring work and photographs of the three eruptions will be displayed on the walls.
The Mauka and Makai gallery exhibits were coordinated and curated by Jane Takahashi and Andrew Hara, who also digitally cleaned, optimized, and printed the images.
In a membership celebration of the centennial, pieces selected from works submitted by EHCC members for the volcano art competition will be displayed in the central gallery. The art will be chosen by jurors Jane Takahashi and Kathleen Kam from those submitted.
The opening reception will be held at 5:30 p.m. today. Following the announcement of the winners for the art show, Jim Kauahikaua, HVO scientist-in-charge, will give a brief introduction to HVO’s exhibits, and Tim Orr, HVO geologist, will give a 45-minute talk and image show of the three eruptions of 2011. Admission is free.