Kaua‘i teacher on volcanic research expedition

A 28-day sea expedition set out Monday from Honolulu to take an international team of scientists and a Garden Island educator on a quest to map the vast Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau submarine volcanic fields.

Waimea Canyon teacher Linda Sciaroni has traded her classroom for the University of Hawai‘i research vessel “Kilo Moana” on a cruise called “Underwater Volcanoes of the Northern Hawaiian Islands.”

Sciaroni, who will pen daily dispatches from the ship, said Family Science nights and a public lecture schedule will follow the cruise upon its return Oct. 7.

Michael Garcia, chief scientist and principal person behind getting this cruise proposed and funded by the National Science Foundation, said the project was conceived three years ago by a University of Hawai‘i group including School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology Dean Brian Taylor.

Garcia said Sciaroni is an “important part of this cruise working with 23 Kaua‘i classrooms.”

The research crew will use multibeam bathymetry and acoustic imagery and sample volcanoes using the JASON2 robotic vehicle to characterize the petrology, geochemistry and ages of the lavas.

“The volcano field is unlike any around the other Hawaiian Islands. It is expected the expedition will reveal new secrets about the rejuvenation stage of volcanism that formed such features as Diamond Head,” a news release states.

The public is invited to participate on this discovery expedition via daily online updates from the ship. The Web site will detail what life on a research vessel is like, discuss new discoveries made each day, summarize the geologic background of the region, describe the high-tech tools being used and plot the course of the ship itself, a news release says.

As of yesterday, Garcia reported good weather and said the crew is already seeing “lots of submarine volcanoes.”

For more information, visit www.soest.hawaii.edu/expeditions/Kauai or e-mail questions to expeditions@soest.hawaii.edu.