Raising Islands--Hawai'i science and environment

 When water flows down a gradual stream over a generally flat bottom, it’s clear and transparent, but when it hits a steep slope like rapids and waterfalls, it turns white and frothy. Still ...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/06/why-does-smooth-pahoehoe-lava-suddenly.html

 Sea levels around Hawai’i are unusually low, and have been for some months. Experts aren’t sure why. They are pretty sure they’ll come back to normal, and higher. But because they’re ...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/05/hawaii-ocean-levels-inches-below-normal.html

 The Nature Conservancy has attracted gray-backed terns back to Palmyra Atoll after they were lost to the island, likely due to rat predation. (Image: Gray-backed tern chick. Credit: The Na...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/05/gray-backed-tern-returns-to-palmyra.html

The newest United Nations report on planetary climate, different from previous cautious reports, minces few words.  Things are getting worse, and faster than ever, and we have no time left to ...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/03/i-guess-its-possible-to-be-optimistic.html

The La Nina oceanic condition, which we’ve been in for many months, has ended, and an El Nino appears likely to form in the summer or fall. That’s the latest prediction from the Climate Pr...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/03/climate-shifts-further-la-nino-is-over.html

(Image: Fuji News Network image of the globally baffling sphere on Hamamatsu City beach.) A UFO. A dragon egg. A communist plot. Another spy balloon. Wow. International media report the...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-international-enigma-baffling.html

 We may not learn a whole lot more about the four objects shot down during February 2023 by American jets, other than they appeared to all be balloons carrying some sort of payload. The first ...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/02/wrapping-up-shot-down-balloons-story.html

 (Image: U.S. Navy assault craft working on the recovery of debris from the Chinese balloon shot down over South Carolina February 4. Credit: U.S. Navy.) Everything about the mystery object...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/02/maybe-alien-maybe-not-balloons.html

Is there something new and strange and scary going on in our atmosphere, or are we just hyperalert to stuff that’s been there all along? Maybe we're now seeing it largely because we're now lo...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/02/two-more-ufo-reports-in-24-hours-after.html

The three UFOs shot down in the past couple of weeks are hardly alone—the military is reporting that UFO sightings are now running in the hundreds per year. What the heck is going on? We've ...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/02/ufos-now-uaps-getting-shot-down-left.html

 Long-time Hawai’i residents have seen the remarkable increase in humpback whale numbers since the 1960s, but that increase could be over. Whale numbers dropped catastrophically in the middl...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/02/have-we-already-seen-peak-humpback.html

 There continue to be good odds that oceanic conditions will return to an El Nino state by mid-year, and that could portend a more active hurricane season for the Hawaiian Islands. The U.S. Cl...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/02/el-nino-conditions-on-track-to-return.html

 Lots of drama these days about surveillance balloons after a China balloon sailed across our country and we shot it down. And now there’s another China balloon over Latin America. But a lo...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/02/surveillance-balloons-theres-there.html

 There’s this odd thing about Hawaiian volcanic activity—secondary volcanism. This is the appearance of new eruptions long after the main island-building volcanic activity is done. It is a...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/02/can-sea-level-change-promote-volcanic.html

  (Images--above and at bottom--of marine debris from sperm whale belly, courtesy UH Health and Stranding Lab.) If you’re a fish or a turtle or most any kind of marine life feeding in t...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/02/plastic-pollution-is-inescapable-and-it.html

(Image: Aerial view of Lehua Island, courtesy of DLNR.)  If you’re lonely, does looking in a mirror help? Probably not, but it may help for seabirds. One of the tools wildlife biologists...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/01/using-mirrors-to-convince-birds-to-nest.html

 It will likely be weeks or longer before we know why a big sperm whale washed ashore on Kauai, or we may never know. Some folks have already been suggesting theories, but without doing the sc...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/01/why-did-sperm-whale-die-thats-not-yet.html

  An adult sperm whale washed ashore early today (Saturday, January 28, 2023) at Lydgate Park in Wailua, on Kaua’i. The county issued a press release urging people to stay away from the ...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/01/sperm-whale-strands-on-kauais-lydgate.html

  Whale and dolphin strandings are generally fatal to the marine mammals involved, but also traumatize their human cousins who attend them. Often, researchers have been unable to figure o...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/01/new-clues-in-hawaii-whale-strandings.html

 You live in Hawai’i, you live longer. This has been the case for a while, and in the latest statistics, the Islands continue to have the highest life expectancy of any state in the U.S.  ...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/01/you-live-hawaii-you-live-longer.html

  The planet gave us all a break from hurricane-dense El Niño during Covid, but that may be coming to an end. After three years of cooler temperatures in the tropical Pacific, there are indi...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/01/el-nino-may-be-back-by-summer-with-all.html

The newest Covid variant might be an American native version of the pandemic virus. At least it was most widespread earliest in New England.  Omicron XBB.1.5 was first identified in New York...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/01/quick-update-on-where-we-are-with.html

 New research shows that small islands without rats have more productive nearshore environments than those with rats. It’s a fascinating bit of data that seems to confirm Leonardo Da Vinci�...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/01/removing-rats-from-islands-has-big.html

 Hawaii has grown drier and browner over the last 40 years. This won’t be a big surprise to land managers who have faced repeated droughts, more wildfires and lower streamflows. But now ther...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2023/01/new-research-hawaii-dramatically-drier.html

Two weeks after their double eruption, Kīlauea and Mauna Loa are handling the holidays differently, although neither is erupting. Mauna Loa appears to be resting, according to the U.S. Geologi...

http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-volcanoes-kilauea-reinflating-mauna.html