Hawaii

This is a project I did on the rock cycle for school.

It is 1984. I am magma that consists of mostly olivine (a magnesium iron silicate with the formula (Mg+2, Fe+2)2SiO4). I am 2,000 feet below the summit of the Mauna Loa volcano mountain on the Hawai’i Island in Hawaii State. Now, the morning of March 25, 1984, the volcano is starting to rumble. The excessive pressure pushed me up to the summit of the volcano, and allows me to escape from the mantle to the surface of the earth.

The surface of the earth is much cooler than underground, but it is still hot enough (2,000 F) to keep me in a molten lava state to flow down from the top of the mountain to the ocean. About a fourth of my friends go down the west side. On the next day, the other three quarters of my friends including me travel to the northeast side of the Hawai’i Island. I flow gently down the shield volcano fairly slowly because I have about 50% of silicon, which makes me move slowly. I know several friends who have less silicon in other islands, and they flow quicker from the mountain to the ocean, and they immediately cool down when they meet seawater. The sea waves eroded them directly. However, I am in the different position. I travel between the Kulani Prison and Saddle road for 10 miles, and finally, I stopped near a river, which is located 3,000 feet above sea level.

When I stayed near the river, there were frequent rain showers. Sometimes, I met heavy wind and rain. People called it a typhoon. I felt that I am already eroding to gravel, and I went down the river as gravel with my friends. In the water, I bumped with my friends, and became sand. Soon, I and my friends slowed down because we already reached end of the river and met with the ocean. People also called this location as a delta, but I can’t call it is clear delta region because I did not see much other sediment and living environment such as mud, plants, and animals.

I realize that now, I am in the Pacific Ocean. I also realized that I stay as a part of my old friends, who escaped from the volcano during the 1859 eruption. Now I am going southwest by ocean current. This is taking a long time.  Oh, now I am on a wave, and I get washed onto the shore of the Papakōlea beach. Now I truly have a lot of friends on the beach. It was truly the best week when I finally arrived the Papakōlea beach. They’re of all different sizes: cobbles, gravel, sand, silt, clay, and even colloids but I knew we came from the same place: the Mauna Loa volcano because they have the same green color mineral, olivine. The Papakōlea beach is so beautiful when sun is rising. Sparking emerald color of the sand including myself become shiny, and a number of tourists are visiting here to see my friends and me.