Thursday, May 6, 2010

surbr

A surfer who longs to go to Hawaii and surf a Kileaua* lava flow down to the ocean.

* They actually would be surfing Pu`u` Ō`ō but the details aren't important, just the rad ride.

6 comments:

  1. Knarly dude.

    Is that the Hawaiian spelling for pahoehoe? I've got some old asbestos panels I could offer as board making materials.

    Did you know that the three different kind of lavas are rhyolitic, basaltic and andracitic? Not to be confused with the three different kind of flows, which are pahoehoe, aa, and block.

    I took Imogen to the Big Obsidian Flow in Oregon when she was in the US. Cowabunga.

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  2. "A BIG andracitic flow is coming!" On the rare days when that shout reverberates through the halls of Hawaiian schools, the students run out of classrooms leaving behind baffled teachers.

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  3. The science teachers are always the first out the doors.

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  4. I'm sorry to have to correct your science teacher Mary, but andesite (which I spelled wrong above) is found primarily in the Andes (hence the name). Hawaiian volcanoes are basaltic.

    Tasmanian volcanoes were also basaltic, but in a fairly unusual form called diabase, or dolerite, which is why Tasmania has the largest exposure of dolorite on the planet (and we live right on top of it). The rock is an attractive gun metal gray. Like other basalts it forms columns. Tasmania mostly mines it (and crushes it) to use as road base.

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  5. If you mean Pu`u` Ō`ō, Lori, that's the crater with the eruption that is flowing down to the see.

    Jim's picture of Big Obsidian Flow was used in Earth magazine's Where on Earth geology contest so it's one of our favorite places. :)

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  6. Ah. Nope, not familiar with that crater, Andi. Love to see it, and a Surbr riding it, someday.

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