Dog park in Hawaii Kai needs helpers to dig holes

Dog lovers are wanted to help dig holes at the Hawaii Kai Dog Park on Jan. 17.

Hui Ilio Hawaii, a nonprofit group, needs 50 volunteers to plant naupaka along the fence perimeter to prevent erosion under the fence line and to beautify the park.

Hui Ilio Hawaii, which partnered with the city to help build the dog park, recommends bringing a trowel or shovel, work gloves, a hat or visor and sunscreen, and to wear covered shoes.

Volunteers are asked to RSVP so sponsors can provide enough refreshments for everyone.

E-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call 396-1742 or 396-5225 and leave a name, e-mail address and phone number.

Kilauea hole's eruption called done

HILO » The eruption at the summit of Kilauea Volcano could be over, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory announced yesterday.

The general public might not have noticed because the eruption from a big hole at the bottom of Halemaumau Crater inside Kilauea Caldera is nothing like what the public thinks of as an eruption.

Since last spring the hole has been coughing dust and rocks but no flowing lava.

In fact, observatory staff needed a special camera before they could make up their minds.

The infrared camera, which can look through gas spewing from the hole in the ground, previously showed glowing red rocks with a bright yellow spot where the hole went deeper into the ground.

Now the camera, using artificial color, shows purple rock walls and no deeper hole, since that spot has been filled with rubble, the observatory said.

Several other indicators suggest the gassy, stinky eruption of the past several months is waning. Sulfur dioxide has declined to 770 metric tons per day, way down from the 2,000 tons per day of several months ago although still above the background level of 140 tons per day a year ago.

The result is a fume cloud that looks downright wispy.

As to the dust and pebbles, as recently as Dec. 5 more than half of the ejected material came from little bits of fresh lava. Now all of it comes from old, long-solidified lava making up the crater walls.

Volcano Observatory head Jim Kauahikaua said the eruption is over if fresh lava fragments are the definition of an eruption.

But then he added cautiously, “;The eruption may have paused, rather than ended.”;

Keep in mind that none of this applies to the rift eruption continuing 12 miles to the east. Lava there is still flowing downhill and into the ocean.