This incredible view of a vent in the Halemaumau Crater within the Kilauea volcanic caldera on the Island of Hawaii was captured by a U.S. Geological Survey thermal video camera June 1.

Sped up by four times, the video reveals activity in the 450 foot-wide vent that is usually obscured by accompanying gas fumes. The cracks in the lava pond at the beginning of the video — when the lava is at a high stand in the vent — are just visible in the photo below.

As the clip continues, more cracks form in the cooled crust of lava on top of the pond and pieces begin to break off and move around. As the activity increases, lava can be seen splattering, releasing hot fumes that look like flames in the thermal view.

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Kailua-Kona, Big Island of Hawaii, March 30, 2010 — In a year full of exciting changes for both Kona Brewing Company and the California Surf Museum, the two companies have yet another reason to celebrate; Hawaii’s largest brewer has recently been named the Official Beer Sponsor of the California Surf Museum. The new partnership was made official in March and stemmed from a mutual respect for each others’ commitment to sustainability and love of water, as well as a shared dedication to preserving surfing history and the surf lifestyle in California, Hawaii and across the globe.

For the new partnership, Kona Brewing Company has contributed a cash donation to fund ongoing programs, projects and museum exhibits, and will provide the Liquid Aloha™ libations for 10 museum events happening throughout 2010. These upcoming events including the 3rd Annual Gala fundraiser on June 5th 2010, the 3rd Annual California Surf Festival, musical events occurring throughout the summer and more.

Attendees at the March 6 opening of WOW, Women on Waves, were also treated to Kona Brewing Company’s Longboard Island Lager.

The California Surf Museum was founded in 1986 when architect and surfer Stuart Resor put the call out to people interested in founding a historical surf museum. Since then, the museum’s revolving homes included Moonlight Plaza in Encinitas, then PB, then a building on Highway 101 in Oceanside for almost a decade. Last year, the Museum got brand new digs at 312 Pier Way in Oceanside, and the new location provides a serene and green backdrop for events while enjoying some Liquid Aloha™.

“Kona Brewing’s new partnership with the California Surf Museum really suits us,” Said Kona Brewing Company president and CEO Mattson Davis. “The mainland surf community is crucial to Kona Brewing as many surfers have their first taste of Kona beer when they visit the North Shore. This brings it home for them, and I know many museum patrons will enjoy this new arrangement.”

Exciting changes for Kona Brewing Company this past year have included a new VW bus stationed in Southern California, installation of a solar photovoltaic energy generating system at Kailua-Kona brewery and pub on Hawaii’s Big Island, an innovative lightweight bottle that will save almost 4,000 tons of carbon emissions per year and the launch of Hawaii’s first organic beer: Oceanic Organic Saison.

For more information, please visit www.konabrewingco.com. For more on the California Surf Museum, please visit http://www.surfmuseum.org

Kailua-Kona, Big Island of Hawaii, March 9, 2010 . . . In a move to minimize environmental impact, Kona Brewing Company has announced its award-winning beer will be produced in glass bottles that are 11% lighter than before. The company, Hawaii’s largest brewer, has reduced its bottle weight from 8 ounces to 7.3 ounces for all Kona brands. The new lightweight Longboard Island Lager bottles will begin hitting shelves of grocers and specialty beer stores in early March, and the new bottle will be virtually identical to current bottles in look and feel. The new weight Fire Rock Pale Ale and Wailua Wheat Ale bottles will be on shelves by late March.

The flavors of Kona brands will be completely unaffected, and no changes will be made to the brewing process, quality or recipes of the beers. Like many sustainability programs the brewer has implemented, such as its new solar energy generating system at the brewery on Hawaii’s Big Island, the savings on the new lightweight bottle will be great for both the company and the environment. The reduction in bottle weight will save 3,375 tons of CO2 emitted per year, which is the same as the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by a car traveling 8 million miles and equates to taking 511 cars off the road for a year. Seen another way, the savings also equates to easing the workload of 154,688 trees, which would have been taxed with offsetting the CO2 emitted by production of bottles, shipping and fuel.

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Entertainer Cher’s newly constructed home at the Four Seasons Hualalai Resort on the Big Island of Hawaii goes on the auction block next month.

The 8,821-square-foot Balinese-style home was designed by the singer and actress and completed just this month.

Concierge Auctions, which will conduct the sale on Jan. 18, estimates the home, which sits on three-quarters of an acre overlooking the Hualalai Golf Course and the ocean, will fetch anywhere from $8 million to $12 million.

Cher’s Inshallah Trust bought the property for $2.9 million five years ago, according to tax records. The house, which has a main residence with a master suite and five bungalows, is being sold furnished with artwork and accessories.

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Kailua-Kona, Big Island of Hawaii — Kona Brewing Company’s Oceanic Organic Saison is Hawaii’s first certified organic beer. Kona Brewing Company’s brewery recently received organic certification for the beer from Hawaii Organic Farmers Association (HOFA) and brewed it last month. The beer will tap up at Kona Brewing Company’s pubs in early January. HOFA is a nonprofit organization that administers organic certification in Hawaii.

“We are ecstatic to be brewing the first certified organic beer in the state of Hawaii,” said Kona Brewing Company’s President and CEO Mattson Davis. “We strive to be environmentally conscious in all that we do – from serving locally grown organic produce whenever possible to feeding Big Island cattle the spent grain from our brewing process. We’re proud that both our pubs recently became Certified Green Restaurants® by the Green Restaurant Association. Reducing our environmental impact has become one of our primary missions. We have improved our efficiencies here in Hawaii and beyond in order to minimize our carbon footprint. It’s better for our guests, better for our business – and most of all, better for our planet.”

Oceanic Organic Saison is a Belgian style ale that was brewed with all organic malt, fermented with a custom blend of Belgian yeast strains and spiced with an abundance of organic hops, organic coriander and grains of paradise. The straw-colored unfiltered beer has a crisp, dry, quenching flavor and distinctive spicy aroma with notes of lemon peel, clove, white pepper, coriander and fresh hops complemented by pleasant cellar-like notes. The complex aroma is balanced by rustic hop flavor. The beer will be served on tap at Kona Brewing Company’s two pubs in Kailua-Kona and Hawaii Kai and at a few select Hawaii restaurants locations. It will be available in growler jugs at the Kailua-Kona Growler Shack. The brewery also will begin bottling Oceanic Organic Saison in 22-ounce bottles in spring of 2010.

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The island of Hawaii is home to five volcanoes, three of which can be observed here in this orthorectified image. These are, clockwise from the upper right, Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa and Hual?lai.

Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano in the post-shield stage of volcanic evolution. Its peak is 13,803 feet (4,207 m) above sea level but 33,476 feet (10,203 m) above its base on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, making it the world’s tallest mountain by this measure. The rounded formations on its flanks are various cinder cones.

Mauna Loa is an active shield volcano, with a volume estimated at approximately 18,000 cubic miles (75,000 km³). Its peak, with an elevation of 13,679 feet (4,169 m), is about 120 feet lower than that of Mauna Kea.

Hual?lai is a dormant shield volcano with a peak at 8,271 feet (2,521 m) above sea level, much lower than those of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Although Hual?lai is not nearly as active as nearby Mauna Loa, geologic mapping of the volcano shows that 80 percent of Hual?lai’s surface is covered by lava flows no older than about 5,000 years.

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Read about Orthophotography here

The backdrop for this new show is the Big Island of Hawaii, which we recently noted was the location for the season finale of the Bachelorette.

Watch the promo here…if you are into that kind of thing

James L. Wing - Dead Zone Off the Kona coast, pollution is killing once-colorful coral.

Readersdigest.com has an interesting article up about the perils faced by our coral reefs, particularly in Hawaii. They outline various causes; over-fishing, warming oceans, algae, and pollution.

Adjacent to the City of Refuge National Historical Park, the ocean looks as clear as it did five miles away at Kealakekua. But 40 feet down, a blanket of brown goo the size of a football field covers the coral. Resembling a mat of bad Jell-O, it’s algae run amok.

I tread water above three research divers from state and federal agencies who are taking time-lapse pictures and snipping samples of algae to study later. Looking at the mess, they guess what happened: A torrential rain passed through local septic tanks and fertilized farm soil on its way to the ocean. This added nitrogen to the reef and made the algae bloom, just as fertilizer boosts your lawn.

“It had been a very happy reef for decades,” Bill Walsh, head of the state Division of Aquatic Resources for the Big Island of Hawaii, tells me afterward. “Then, overnight, it’s in a state of red alert.” Nearby, downslope from a development of million-dollar vacation homes, it’s a similar story. Runoff containing tons of dirt and silt made its way down a canyon and onto the reef. It’s a coral graveyard now.

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Electronic Health Records, Telemedicine, Mammography and Health Screenings on Wheels Expand Access and Encourage Healthier Communities

OAKLAND, Calif. — Kaiser Permanente, one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans, is introducing a new generation of mobile health. A first-of-its-kind, 500-square-foot, 10-wheel mobile medical vehicle is being shipped to its home island of Hawaii, known to many as the Big Island, where it will improve health care access for thousands of Kaiser Permanente members and the uninsured.

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