field camp!

I thought I'd say a little bit about this field course since we finished a bit early today. It has been pretty non-stop since I got here on the 19th. We are staying at a little hostel in Volcano on the big island, and there are 17 students enrolled. I would definitely recommend this program for anyone interested in volcanology!! We have different instructors for each portion of the course (seismology, physical volcanology, gas geochemistry, deformation), and do a lot of interesting stuff! Two of the instructors were PhD students from Manoa so I could chat with them about life out in Honolulu, which was really cool. One is finishing up and one had already defended. My instructor for the end of this week is a professor at Manoa currently, and his office is just down the hall from Rob's. Actually, one of my close friends from Cornell applied to do a Master's with him next year, but ended up in a PhD program elsewhere. All these crazy connections! Anyway, we are learning a lot about the history of the islands as well as field methods and applying them out here on Kilauea. We got to see (and play with!!!!!) an active lava flow coming from Pu'uo'o (a parasitic shield), which is along the eastern rift zone of Kilauea. There are 2 parts of the volcano that are active: the Halemaumau crater within the caldera, and then along the rift zone at Pu'uo'o. Halemaumau is really just steaming at the moment, but there are larger eruptions occurring sporadically. My knee hasn't been TOO horrible with all the hiking. I'm learning to walk without bending it much at all, which really helps. It's hard switching between different types of surfaces though. Like I'll get used to walking on lava (generally just Pahoehoe), then all of a sudden we'll be on a nicer trail and I have to change my strategy. But it's alright, I get a little slack being a cripple and all! Also, this trip has really inspired me to potentially work out a time where I can volunteer at HVO (Hawaii Volcano Observatory), since it seems like an amazing experience. Two of the girls in this course are staying out here after and volunteering, so I've been chatting with them about the process a bit. 

I can't really do any work on my project at the moment. I became an AGU member, so at least that's something! But as I said before, Rob hired a research assistant named Kelly who will be there for 6 months, so while I'm gone she is also working with the data I am. So that will probably make my life a bit easier when I get back!! Especially since I signed up to take the GRE August 14th, while I'm still in Honolulu!!! Crazy, I know. But I think she is starting on a bunch of picking, which will really only serve to make my results more accessible to the average geophysicist. The data that I have now is just measurements off of record sections, which is not quite as accurate as I would like to put on a poster. So we will see what this all culminates to!

I'll work on getting some pictures up of the big island eventually. I don't even want to connect my camera to my computer, TOO MANY PICTURES!!! So much cool stuff though!!!!!! And yes, I will get some figures up once I get back in the lab also! So much to do!