Hawaii is an island paradise known for its jaw-dropping beauty, rich culture, and active volcanoes.

Located along the southeast coast of Hawaii, Kilauea is one of the five volcanoes that make up the big island of Hawaii. In the past month, the eruption of Kilauea has hit the front page of nearly every national news organization. Although a volcanic eruption may be perceived as an apocalyptic event of great concern and magnitude, this current activity is quite ordinary. Despite the breaking news coverage of Kilauea, this is just the most recent phase in an eruption cycle that has been in effect since the early 1980s.

The effects of this volcanic eruption are predominantly localized, including evacuations and the closure of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. However, with tourism season approaching, they are expected to have a economic impact statewide.

“Kilauea has been erupting since 1983, and so what is happening now is entirely typical of what has happened over the last 30-odd years,” said Kari Cooper, a professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. “It’s just that it has started in a new location recently and that’s why the press is interested in it.”

The activity is centered around the East Rift Zone, where 22 new fissures have emerged. Fissures are long cracks or openings in the ground that allow magma to surface.

“We call it magma below the surface and then lava once it gets to the surface,” Cooper said. “The fissures allow the magma to get to the surface and then you get some, what we call, spattering, meaning [volcanic rock] gets tossed out of the ground some 10 to 30 feet up in the air and then it also feeds a lava flow.”

Volcanic eruptions are often overdramatized in movies, with embellished scenes of lava encompassing entire villages, sending people running for their lives. But in reality lava is generally only harmful to immovable objects.

“[Lava] is less directly hazardous to people usually because it doesn’t move very fast in this particular area,” Cooper said. “People can typically walk fast enough to get out of the way. So unless you were caught by surprise or surrounded by a lava flow, it is very unlikely to be in danger for your life.”

Along with lava and spattering, the fissures are also emitting harmful gases into the atmosphere.

“They emit volcanic gases such as sulfur dioxide and chlorine bearing gases, which can form hydrochloric acid and steam,” Cooper said. “All magma has some amount of volcanic gases dissolved in them when they are formed deep below the surface. And then as they come up to the surface, those gases come out of solution.”

An analogy to this process, Professor Cooper explained, is like opening a bottle of soda.

“The amount of gas that is contained in the magma varies depending on the path that it has taken to the surface, and so you’ll get different amounts of gas with different phases of the eruption,” Cooper said. “Sometimes the plume is more acid rich or hazardous than other times because of the particular nature of the magma that is coming up at that time.”

Plume referred to the steam emitted from the fissures which contains ash and volcanic gases.

“There are both short-term, acute hazards which are mainly going to be affecting people who are susceptible to respiratory problems, and then there are the long-term, chronic hazards,” Cooper said. “Say if you live downwind of it for your entire life, you might start to notice some effects.”

Colin Ferguson, a graduate research fellow in geochemistry who got his undergraduate degree at UC Davis in 2015, further explained the effects of the volcanic gases.

“It doesn’t really affect local life normally very much because the trade winds carry the gases from the main crater off the island and out toward the ocean,” Ferguson said. “And it’s always being monitored.”

Cooper and Ferguson explained that most healthy individuals are not at any major risk of inhaling these gases for short periods of time. The main threat is posed to those with already weakened respiratory and immune systems.

“Basically with volcanoes, no matter the type [of volcano] they are, where they are, you get a lot of CO2 and steam coming out,” Ferguson said. “And you get some sulfur coming out either in the form of hydrogen sulfide or sulfur dioxide. So those two main components of sulfurous gases or carbon gases can create acid rain locally.”

Again, although this may sound alarming, volcanologists and geologists express the normalcy of this activity that has been ongoing since the start of the eruption in 1983.  

“You have a lot of moisture in a tropical environment, and then the volcanic gases are coming out, they mix with the water and then they make acid which rains out nearby,” Ferguson said. “So there has been this problem with Kona coffee for a while now where the acid rain has been attacking the coffee crop due to a change in prevailing winds.”

The effects on the agriculture near the summit is just one way that Kilauea’s eruption has impacted the island economically.

One major devastation to the locals who live near the volcano is the loss of homes and destruction of roads.

“In terms of local effect, there have been 30-some houses burned,” Robert Zierenberg said, a professor emeritus in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. “There are only two major roads that connect [locals] to the rest of the island. One of those roads has already been covered by lava, so you can’t get out that way — the other road has cracks and hot gas is coming out, so it could turn into another fissure.”

According to Time magazine, as of May 25 at 1 a.m., Hawaii county has evacuated 2,000 residents in Leilani and surrounding neighborhoods.

“At this point, all the people who live on that side of the island have no way to get to their homes anymore or no way to escape from them,” Zierenberg said. “So the local effects are quite devastating to the people who live in that area.”

The more significant and widespread economic repercussions the eruption is having on Hawaii is the hit to the tourism industry.

“In Hawaii, tourism is a big part of their economy and people are canceling their trips to Hawaii because people are worried about the eruption,” Zierenberg said. “The Hawaii Volcanoes National Park [receives] a couple million visitors a year, and right now it’s closed, so that will have a big economic effect on the island in general. So the effects are not really too worldwide, but if you live in Hawaii there can be a lot of hardship for people who have lost their houses or are losing their income because of this.”

As for predictions for how long these events will continue, experts are unsure.

“That is the question that everyone wants the answer to, especially the geologists who are in charge of volcanic safety, and unfortunately we don’t know what the volcanoes going to do,” Zierenberg said.

Cooper conveyed a similar sentiment.

“I think in volcano science we are at a stage where we could, in theory, in the next 10 or 20 years, get to the point where we could make probabilistic predictions like we do with weather now,” Cooper said. “What we would need is a better understanding of what is going on below the surface in volcanos because eruptions are all started by things that happen below the surface. And so we need to have a better understanding of signals that we measure at the surface like changes in earthquake activity, changes in volcanic gas emissions and how to interpret that in terms of what is going on below the surface and then what that means in terms of whether something is going to erupt or not.”

Kilauea’s location and the fact that it has been active for the past three decades makes it a prime site to study and measure volcanic activity. The U.S. Geological Survey has an observatory located at the summit and has had instruments monitoring the volcano for the last hundred years.

Within the UC Davis Department of Geology, students have the opportunity to gain field experience by studying in Hawaii. Geology 138 is a unique summer session undergraduate volcanology course that travels to Kilauea to study at the summit.

“We wouldn’t be able to run it right now because the national park is closed and the students stay right at the summit of the volcano at what’s called the Kilauea military camp,” Zierenberg said. “The class is normally taught in summer session, so if the eruption stabilizes and the park reopens we will try to offer the class. But right now it’s uncertain.”

When Zierenberg taught this class in the past, one of his students was Colin Ferguson, who was an undergraduate geology major focusing on volcanology.

“It’s a dream class,” Ferguson said. “One of those incredible experiences you’ll never look back on and regret having spent time in Hawaii studying an active volcano.”

With the class scheduled for Summer Session II, it is unclear whether the state of the volcano will allow geology students to travel to Hawaii for the field program.

“This eruption could stop tomorrow, it could be going on 10 years from now in the same place, and we really have no way of knowing that,” Zierenberg said. “But with each eruption we learn a little bit more and hopefully with every eruption will get a little bit better at answering those kinds of questions, but mother nature is in charge — we are not.”

Written by: Grace Simmons — features@theaggie.org

Addressing issues of health care, environment through fashion

Graduate students in the design department at UC Davis work on many diverse projects in pursuit of their interests and passions following the completion of their undergraduate degrees. Lanwei Su, a graduate student at UC Davis working toward her MFA in design, began a project designing smart clothing and wearable devices that address healthcare and environmental issues. Her focus is on designing fashionable hoodies that provide a filter from smog and pollution. Growing up in China, where wearing surgical masks is commonplace due to the bad air quality, she decided that there should be a better, more efficient and more fashionable way to address the issue.

“I grew up in Beijing and lived there until I was 21,” Su said. “For the past six to eight years the air pollution really intensified and has begun to affect people’s everyday lives, including mine and my family’s. It’s gotten to the point that you can smell a burnt, ashy smell every day. You have to wear those surgical looking air masks all day if you’re outside, which I think is really inconvenient, and a lot of those masks are defective so they’re not filtering smog or any toxic gas. They’re just surgical masks that only keep your own bacteria in, not working to filter the air.”

While the issue hits close to home for Su, she noted how her passion for fashion and freedom of expression also drove her towards her project.

“The air masks make people appear sick,” Su said. “They strip people of their individuality because they have to wear such bland masks all the time. That worried me a lot. One time I was with a group of my friends and we were all wearing the air masks, but one of our friends, who was very interested in fashion, was not. She told me that she would never wear the air masks because of their appearance, and I think that was part of what inspired me to start this project as well.”

Su’s program is the UC Davis MFA in design, a graduate degree that unites theory and practice in a two-year program that encourages human-centered and sustainable design practices. Students collaborate with faculty within the department to blend individual-focused research and practice with an understanding of key issues in history and theory. Su works with several UC Davis professors, including Tom Maiorana, an assistant professor in the Department of Design. Maiorana noted how enjoyable it is to be able to work with students on projects they’re so passionate about.

“Lanwei’s project is really exciting just because it has a really human component,” Maiorana said. “It’s there to help people address the need of protecting themselves from smog, but doing it in a way that allows them to still be fashionable and express themselves. I think that’s a really neat need that she’s found to be able to explore that sort of thing. It’s also really exciting because Lanwei’s so committed to doing that project that it’s been fun to see all the different avenues that she’s explored and the way that she’s thinking about it as a business, an engineering challenge, a fashion challenge and pulling it all together in a way that’s super exciting to see how far she’s come in a really short amount of time.”

He notes how, with the diversity of professors with ranging backgrounds and areas of focus, students may rely on the help of different professors in varying ways.

“A lot of times, for me personally, we help students figure out ways to work efficiently,” Maiorana said. “Since my expertise is around prototyping, a lot of what I’ve helped Lanwei do is think about what are really fast ways to learn about some of the challenges that she’s facing. There are certain technical things about filtration systems or masks or filtering that she knows way more about than I do. And because I’m working with so many different students, it would be impossible for me to be an expert in all of those different areas. What I can do is help them think about how to explore those things really efficiently and effectively. Some of the technological things she’s uncovering is way deeper than I could ever go because that’s not my domain area, but that’s quickly becoming her area of expertise.”

With the backing of her team and committee members, Su recently entered her project in UC Davis’ Big Bang! Business competition, which provides a forum for UC Davis and outside communities to collaborate, develop and test out business visions and plans. The competition offers resources for team building, education, mentorship and networking for aspiring and early stage entrepreneurs.

“I’m doing the Big Bang! competition and I’m one of the semifinalists right now,” Su said. “There were 63 teams in the beginning and I think we’re in the Top 6 teams now.”

She notes how the competition, while giving her a place to compete for prize money and recognition, also gives her an opportunity to further develop and expand on her project.

“In the competition, the judges give you feedback and sometimes give you a mentor to help guide you and help you think about a business model, the revenue stream and financial position,” Su said. “It helps give you more a business plan, which has helped me think of a different way that I can get into a design entrepreneurship.”

While Su is still working on developing and refining her smart clothing, she’s excited for what the future has in store for her and her passion project.

“I liked the idea to incorporate my project into a business,” Su said. “I really want to work on this and develop it into a start-up — that’s my vision.”

Bri James, the founder of Scrumpt, a lunch subscription service for kids, and winner of the 2015 Big Bang! Competition, began her business as a side gig in her apartment with her mom. She’s now expanded to deliver lunch for Bay Area families and delivered over 42,000 meals in 2015. She noted her entrepreneurial mindset and how important it is to share ideas that may initially seem out of grasp for an individual on such a small scale.

“Your idea is worthless if you keep it to yourself,” James said in an interview with the Davis Enterprise. “‘I had the idea for eBay before it was ebay, or Uber before it was uber,’” she says of her friends. “Kudos to all those who got their ideas out there.”

Written by: Alyssa Hada — features@theaggie.org

A closer look at one of UC Davis’ most influential minors

The UC Davis School of Education was founded in 2002 on the principles of leadership, community and commitment to education. The school offers a wide range of courses and programs for students to explore — among them, the education minor. Education encompasses a diverse and robust curriculum, making it one of UC Davis’ most sought-after minors.

“We are the largest minor on campus,” said Tracy Falk, the student services advisor for the UC Davis School of Education. “We have over 300 active students. We pull from human development, psychology, sociology, English, communications, so it’s really a neat mix of students.”

Falk explained the logistical aspects of the education minor: the curriculum is not limited to courses offered by the School of Education exclusively and can include a broad array of courses from multiple fields of study.

“We have courses offered in education for the electives, [but] we also have some specific courses outside of education that are offered by different majors [that] have an education theme or an educational context.,” Falk said. “We try to give people a variety of topics to choose from.”

Falk emphasized the quality of the staff and faculty members that work in the School of Education. According to Falk, the unyielding passion for education that each faculty member possesses is what really makes the program exceptional.

“One of the most excellent pieces of the school would be our faculty,” Falk said. “They are very committed to teaching. Being here at a UC school, they’re also very committed to research and they have active research and grants and projects, which they share with the Ph.D. students as well as their undergrad. But first and foremost, our faculty are teachers, and what students rave about is how they really enjoyed their classroom experiences and they really enjoyed working with our faculty.”

Jacqueline Rodriguez, a third-year human development major and prospective education minor, says that her hands-on research experience with one of her professors solidified her passion for pursuing education as a career.

“I want to get my teaching credential and further pursue special education,” Rodriguez said. “I took EDU 115 with Nicole Sparapani, [who] specializes in children with autism. I’m actually doing research with her right now. She’s amazing in her work and I really enjoy working with [her].”

Danny C. Martinez, an assistant professor of language, literacy and culture in the School of Education, says that the education minor aims to give students a holistic sense of the inner dynamics of education and how students can expect to apply that knowledge to their everyday lives.

“The education minor is a series of courses that allows students to get a taste of what they may be encountering in different fields within education and some of the issues that are really important for the field of education at the moment,” Martinez said. “We really want students to think about how schooling has many components to it, how complex schooling is and the attempts that people have made […] to make schooling a better experience for folks.”

According to Martinez, the curriculum allows students to analyze education within a sociopolitical lens, incorporating many relevant issues that have molded the education system into what it is today.

“We try to make very clear the inequities that have existed in the schooling system and how some of those inequities were purposeful,” Martinez said. “Schools were designed so that a certain demographic within the United States could maintain their social positions while others continued in positions that weren’t as fortunate.”

Martinez says that having that knowledge of education gives students a more comprehensive perspective of the world, which is why students from so many different fields are attracted to the minor.

“Many of the students in my classes who want to go into education want to become teachers,” Martinez said. “I’m seeing more students who want to do education research. I have many students who are interested in [education] policy. We have students who know that education isn’t where they’re going in their careers, and they simply want to know more about the education process.”

Whether they plan on pursuing a career in education or not, Martinez believes that students who decide to explore the education minor are exposed to invaluable lessons and experiences.

“I think what’s substantial about [the education minor] is that we’re giving students a range of experiences to think about,” Martinez said. “Students who know they want to become educators, students who don’t know, or students who are just taking a GE — they’re leaving with some experience around their education. They understand how education should be a productive, transformative experience.”

Written by: Emily Nguyen — features@theaggie.org