In February 1924, the surface of the lava lake at Halema‘uma‘u dropped rapidly and disappeared from view.

Now is a great time to travel even when it comes to big cities. Cities as diverse as London, Medellin and New York have much in common. They each have populations in the many millions. They are approximately the same size in square miles as the City and County of Honolulu. What is remarkable is that these great cities have embarked on major tree planting projects over the last few decades. They also have a past when forward thinking planners set aside major tracts of land for parks, watersheds and wildlife.

Early Wednesday morning, just before 1 a.m. on March 13, houses in east Hawaii began to shake. Without a doubt, it was an earthquake. To those who endured the near-daily shaking from last summer’s collapse events at Kilauea’s summit, this week’s earthquake was clearly different.