Kilauea's Kalapana Wipeout! Mystery Cache

To get the coordinates, solve the math problems above.

A HUGE MAHALO to RTUMIN for the math expertise!

Please make note that your answer is in Decimal Degrees (DegDec)!
To convert your DegDec answer to Degrees & Minutes (MinDec)
to check your answer, please visit here.

23 April 1990	6 June 1990	13 June 1990
Walter's Kalapana Store and Drive Inn (sign in photo above) was burned and covered by lava in early June as flows moved relentlessly through the Kalapana area. During this difficult period, scientists of the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory provided detailed information on lava movement to the Hawai`i County Civil Defense, which made decisions regarding evacuation, road closures, and safe vantage points for residents and visitors.

Lava moved slowly through Kalapana between April and June 1990. Between Kalapana and the sea, the Hakuma horst directed the advancing flow east, right into the heart of the community (+ symbol marks the east end of the fault scarp). Hakuma Point is in the lower left. Click on an image to get a larger-sized version and additional information. ¹

3 April 1990	31 May 1990	3 June 1990
Lava moved slowly through Kalapana between April and June 1990. Between Kalapana and the sea, the Hakuma horst directed the advancing flow east, right into the heart of the community (+ symbol marks the east end of the fault scarp). Hakuma Point is in the lower left. .

22 April 1990	29 April 1990	2 May 1990
Slow-moving pahoehoe lava gradually spread through the community, burning homes and covering parks, roads, and gardens. This experience was extremely difficult for people who had to leave their homes and land to advancing lava. The experience was also grim for scientists monitoring the volcano and Civil Defense officials providing up-to-date information to residents. It wasn't easy to watch families abandon their community as it was slowly flooded by lava.

7 December 1990

The pahoehoe flow fronts were typically only 10-20 cm thick as they moved through the area. However, the thin leading edges of the flows quickly crusted over and stagnated. As lava continued to push beneath the crust, the cooled surface was lifted up until eventually lava again broke out of the sides and front of the inflated flows. In this way, many of the initially thin flows inflated to a thickness of more than 10 m in the Kalapana area. As the flows inflated, some road signs were pulled from the ground and raised several m above the original ground surface.

Here's the trick to caching in Hawaii... pretend you are taking pictures (or take them)!! The majority of locals won't even notice you there if you are taking pictures and the ones that do will simply shake their head and mutter "Tourists, they'll take pictures of anything!" We have to have MINIMUM speed limits here because visitors tend to go too slow while looking at everything!

Counter Added 7/15/2012

 

¹ Hawaii Volcanoes National Park 1990 Kalapana Web Site