Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano located in the Kingdom of Tonga produced a powerful eruption on January 15 just after 5 p.m. Tonga Time (TOT). The Tonga eruption was recorded on pressure sensors over a wide number of places around the world, including the Island of Hawaii about 4,900 kilometers (3,000 miles) away.

Whoops! Valentine’s Day is Monday. Luckily we have the weekend to prepare. You might consider jewelry or a fancy dinner at a local restaurant, but with today’s economy it might be better to be a bit conservative. Valentine’s Day is a time to celebrate our love for spouses, friends and family, but most folks don’t know about the dark origins of this holiday as its history is shrouded in mystery. It appears to have started with the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia. Of course, they borrowed it from even earlier pagans. At any rate, before it became a Christian holiday, men sacrificed goats or dogs and then whipped the women with the hides of slain animals. This was supposed to enhance fertility! According to some historians, there was lots of drinking and nakedness. A lottery was often included where men would pull women’s names from a jar for the temporary match. Some matches lasted and some were one night stands. The result was almost certain fertility! Fifty Shades of Grey doesn’t hold a candle to those days.

Next Monday is Valentine’s Day and a special one for the people in your life. Going out to eat is one option, but is the second busiest day for restaurants, Mother’s Day being the first.

Kilauea’s summit glow comes and goes frequently these days. This is due to a pattern of pauses in lava lake activity within Halema‘uma‘u crater over the last two and a half months. Cycles last several days to a week and consist of a couple days of visible lava lake activity, followed by one to three days without lava.

Last week we traveled vicariously to visit mostly the tropical fruits of the new world. This week let us imagine that we are in the jungles of Southeast Asia, home of monkeys and humans who have lived there for tens of thousands of years. The amazing thing about the forests of tropical Asia is that there are so many fruits and nuts that are good for human consumption that it would be difficult to go hungry. The reason is that primates including humans ate and distributed what they liked to eat. Think about it. When we are walking along a road and we find a delicious mango, we toss the seed and up comes is another mango tree! We can imagine early inhabitants finding edible fruits in the forests and dispersing the seeds by one way or another time and time again.

Curry was introduced to Japan during the Meiji era, between 1868-1912, when the Indian subcontinent was under British rule. The soldiers of Indian descent in Japan then introduced them to curry. This dish took off in popularity and the rest is history.

The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory monitors 6 volcanoes: Kilauea (currently erupting within Halema‘uma‘u), Mauna Loa (most recent eruption in 1984), Hualalai (most recent eruption in 1801), Haleakala (on Maui; most recent eruption sometime between 1480 to 1600 AD), Maunakea (most recent eruption over 4,000 years ago), and Kama‘ehuakanaloa (most recent activity in 1996).

Many folks have been avoiding crowds and even staying home to avoid COVID-19 exposure for the last two years. Being grounded has new meaning when we have little opportunity to socialize. Even folks who have lived in Hawaii all or most of their lives, have never had a problem with rock fever until now. However, there are solutions. We can mentally escape this isolation by growing and expanding our tropical fruit cuisines. Enjoying these fruits can expand our world even though we are stuck at home.

Mauna Loa is known for its effusive eruptions that produce spectacular lava flows. However, some of the volcanic products found on Mauna Loa are pyroclastic or explosive in character.