Kure Atoll: Part of the `Ohana

Hawaiian Islands

Midway Atoll isn't the only island northwest of the populated Hawaiian Islands.  There's a whole chain of islands.  A few are rocky, but most are sandy atolls stretching for more than 1200 miles away from Honolulu.

About 30 million years ago a volcano was built over Hawai`i's hot spot.  No one was here to see it, but there must have been quite a show when the volcano finally erupted above the ocean's surface.  There would have been huge explosions of red-hot lava, clouds of seawater steam, and blobs of pumice shooting out in all directions.  Wow!

As millions of years passed, the volcano began to change; it slowly grew older and older.  The volcano was part of the Pacific Plate, a piece of the Earth's crust, and the Plate was moving away from the hot spot.  The volcano had no more lava building it, so it stopped growing.

Also, the wind, rain and ocean waves hit the volcano and began to break it down.  Incredibly huge chunks of the volcano, the size of buildings and bigger, broke off and tumbled into the depths of the ocean.  The volcano was getting smaller and smaller

But the volcano had developed a lei of coral around it.  As the volcano itself got smaller and smaller, the coral lei grew larger and larger.  The coral always grew enough to stay just below the ocean surface.

This drawing of an atoll represents both Midway and Kure Atolls

Finally the volcano disappeared beneath the sea surface, and coral sand started to fill in on top of it.  Seawater came in and formed a shallow lagoon.  The volcano had become what we call an "atoll."  And this 30-million-year-old atoll is Kure Atoll (say "cure-ay"), the oldest land mass in the Hawaiian Islands.  Kure is Midway's older sister, about 50 miles away to the northwest.

Kure Atoll is owned by the state of Hawai`i.  Jason Misaki and Syd Kawahakui, Jr. work in the state's Division of Forestry and Wildlife within the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR.)    Jason and Syd will spend 3 days on Kure to see for themselves that Kure is kept as natural a place as possible...that its resources are kept intact.

satellite view of Kure Atoll

Visiting Kure means a lot to Jason and Syd because both are kama`aina, born and raised in Hawai`i.  They truly are stewards of their homeland.  Jason comes from Kualapu`u, Moloka`i, and grew up in a family that worked for conservation on his island.  Jason earned a degree in botany with a minor in environmental studies at the University of Hawai`i, Mānoa.  He has the job of Wildlife Manager, and is supervisor of the Kure Atoll project.

Syd was born and raised in Waialua on O`ahu; he attended Kahuku High School, graduating from Kamehameha Schools.  He earned a double major at UH, Mānoa in Hawaiian Studies and Hawaiian Language.  As a young man, Syd began 10 years of volunteer service with the Protect Kaho`olawe `Ohana (PKO.)  He became what is called an Access Guide, or Kua.  Kua is the Hawaiian word for backbone.  Just as your backbone supports your whole body, so does a Kua support PKO.

Here's a picture of Jason (left) and Syd (right.)  The picture on the right shows Syd following proper Hawaiian protocol by blowing the pū (shell.)  The small boat will take them to NOAA's ship, Hi`ialakai, which is outside Midway Atoll in deeper water.  The ship will travel overnight, taking Jason and Syd to Kure.  They will take these 3 values with them:

• aloha `aina (love of the land)
• mālama `aina (taking care of the land)
• ho`oulu `aina (re-growing the land)

Just as Kure and Midway are part of the Hawaiian chain, an `ohana of islands, so we people are an `ohana of stewards, or care-givers, for our land.  All our best wishes go with Jason and Syd!

Midway Atoll Rock Challenge -- answers!

Don't look at this post until you've tried the Midway Atoll Rock Challenge in the previous post!

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Heeeeeere's the answer!

From the picture, you can probably see that #5 has pieces of different colors; it's the cement.

And #9 is the coral.  If you look closely, you can see the small spots or holes where coral animals lived when the rock was part of a living coral colony.

But if you can't tell which rock is pumice by looking at it, you can test to see if it floats.  Yes!  Pumice floats!

When I put all 10 rocks into this pitcher of water, the 8 pieces of pumice floated, while the cement and coral sank.  No wonder flying fish, which live at the ocean's surface, attach their eggs to pumice.

cement on the left; coral on the right

Midway Atoll Rock Challenge

Midway's Sand Island is a small point of land in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean.  It's only 2 square miles in size!  It's so small, and so far away from a continent, that there are only two kinds of rocks here naturally: pumice and limestone.

Pumice is a rock made in nature by volcanoes.   Albatross sometimes accidentally swallow pumice when they swallow their food, flying fish eggs.  The eggs are attached to the floating pumice, and so the pumice gets swallowed right along with the fish eggs.  Hopefully, most albatross get rid of the pumice by barfing it up in a bolus.

Limestone is a natural rock made in the ocean by corals, mollusks, and some other animals.  Corals are small jelly-like animals that can take minerals out of seawater to make themselves a limestone "house."   In fact, some corals make a whole colony of these houses.  A lot of coral colonies together is called a coral reef.

Midway also has cement, since that's used in lots of construction, for example: the buildings and the boat pier.  Cement is hard like a rock, but of course it's made by people, not nature.

Try the Rock Challenge!  There are ten "rocks" in the picture above.  Actually, there are 8 pieces of pumice, 1 piece of coral, and a piece of cement.  Can you correctly identify which are the pumice and which are the coral and cement?  If you'd like a better view of all 10 rocks, click on the picture to enlarge it.

How can we find out for sure?  There's a hint in the 2nd paragraph above.  When you think you know which rocks are which, check the next post for the answer!