Hawaii land board approves plan to build world's largest telescope atop Mauna Kea summit

Doesn't that thing still erupt?

seems like an odd location doesn't it?

Yeah, especially if you're going to pore alot of money into it. That island is still over the hot spot in the crust. At least move it to one of the other islands.

Last Edited by Earth Daughter on 04/15/2013 11:35 AM

paging Dr Astro.

Yeah....with all the humidity in the air there?
...seems like a front for something else.

You don't build UBER MASSIVE telescopes in high humidity environments.
That's why they build them in deserts high on top of mountain ranges.


So what are they REALLY building there?

my exact first thought.

Will Mauna Kea erupt again?
Mauna Kea is presently a dormant volcano, having last erupted about 4,500 years ago. However, Mauna Kea is likely to erupt again. Its quiescent periods between eruptions are long compared to those of the active volcanoes Hualalai (which erupts every few hundred years), Mauna Loa (which erupts every few years to few tens of years) and Kilauea (which erupts every few years). A swarm of earthquakes beneath Mauna Kea might signal that an eruption could occur within a short time, but such swarms do not always result in an eruption. Sensitive astronomical telescopes on top of Mauna Kea would, as a by product of their stargazing, detect minute ground tilts possibly foretelling a future eruption.

[link to hvo.wr.usgs.gov]

seems to be an expensive tilt meter

It puts them over like 2/3 of the athmosphere and there is little light polution hilo side. We can't even have normal streetlights in keeau. Just these weird ambdr lights that dont do much.

Arizona, Chile, and Hawaii are where most of the large telescopes in the free world are located.

The problem with the telescopes in Arizona is that they are increasingly hindered by light pollution from nearby Tucson, a metropolitan that has grown from about 200,000 in the mid 1970's to 1,200,000+ today with more and more people living out in the desert close to the telescopes.

Chile has an access and support problem, being located in the middle of nowheresville.

Hawaii is a logical place for NEW BIG telescopes, only
Chile might be better, so the risk of the Volcano erupting is probably minor when one realizes that the telescope, though costing a LOT, is only going to have a useful lifespan of 80 to 120 years.