James P. Kauahikaua Explained

James Kauahikaua
Birth Name:James Puupai Kauahikaua
Birth Date:1 August 1951
Birth Place:Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, U.S.
Death Place:Hilo, Hawaii, U.S.
Other Names:"Dr. Jim"[1]
Thesis Title:The subsurface resistivity structure of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi
Thesis Url:https://worldcat.org/en/title/8871037
Thesis Year:1982
Doctoral Advisor:Eduard Berg

James Puupai Kauahikaua[2] (August 1, 1951October 8, 2023) was an American geophysicist and volcanologist who served as the 19th Scientist-in-Charge of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory from October 2004 to March 2015.[3] [4] He was the first Scientist-in-Charge at the Observatory to be of Hawaiian ancestry.[5]

Personal life

Kauahikaua was born in Honolulu on August 1, 1951.[6] His family lived in Nuuanu when he was born, though they moved to Kailua soon after. He did not have a particularly Hawaiian upbringing, but considered himself an "academic Hawaiian" for his scholarly interest in Hawaiian culture and sciences.[7]

Kauahikaua was a cancer survivor.[8] In an interview with PBS Hawaii, he described waking up with double vision, and after much consulting with doctors, was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer. After many rounds of chemo and radiation treatment, the cancer was killed and he began remission in 2003. It was described as the scariest experience of his life, more so than anything else during his career. The treatments left him deaf in one ear and hard of hearing in the other.[9]

Kauahikaua died from meningitis complications in his Hilo, Hawaii home on the morning of October 8, 2023, at the age of 72.[10]

Career

Kauahikaua began his career with the USGS in 1976, originally working out of Denver, but then moved to Hawaii after a year.[11] [12]

In 1998, he participated in an archaeology excavation in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park with the U.S. Department of the Interior. This work was featured in part of a 2003 report.[13] As well as his academic papers, his research was cited or otherwise used in multiple U.S. Government reports.[14] [15]

Kauahikaua was awarded funds from the National Science Foundation for research in collaboration with the University of Oregon for the fiscal years.[16]

Kauahikaua served as scientist-in-charge of the Observatory from 2004 to 2015, preceding Tina Neal and following Donald A. Swanson.[17] During this time, he coordinated responses to multiple notable geologic events, including the Mauna Loa unrest of, the Kīholo Bay earthquake, as well as other eruptions at Kīlauea and elsewhere.[18] He stepped aside after over ten years to make room for personal research.[19] He continued to work for the Observatory through the 2018 lower Puna eruption,[20] and continued to work there as a research geophysicist.[21]

In May 2015, he won a DOI Meritorious Service Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior in recognition of his scientific work for the Geological Survey.[22] [23] In 2019, he appeared as a panelist at a workshop hosted by University of Colorado Boulder, in which he talked about his experiences as a Hawaiian volcanologist and gave perspective to the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea.[24]

Kauahikaua was often consulted by the news media as a volcanology expert,[25] especially during the 2022 eruption of Mauna Loa.[26]

Writing

Kauahikaua was the author of Volcano: Creation in Motion,[27] a book about Pele, the Hawaiian deity of volcanoes.

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Hawaiian Volcano Observatory community mourns loss of noted geophysicist, former scientist-in-charge Jim Kauahikaua. Kauai Now. October 18, 2023.
  2. Web site: Volcanic Activity Reports Volcano Listserv New HVO Scientist-in-Charge . 2023-05-04 . Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence and Human-Centered Computing (AI&HCC) . The University of Texas at Austin.
  3. News: October 3, 2004 . Jim Kauahikaua is named scientist-in-charge of Hawaiian Volcano Observatory . A5 . . 7 May 2023 . Newspapers.com.
  4. Web site: 2015-02-27 . Hawaiian Volcano Observatory's chief scientist stepping down . 2023-05-04 . . Hawaii National Park . Facebook . en . Jim Kauahikaua, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory's chief scientist who most recently led its response to the Puna lava flow, is stepping down. . Associated Press.
  5. Web site: Jim Kauahikaua . 2023-05-04 . Roadtrip Nation.
  6. Web site: October 18, 2023 . Noted geophysicist, former scientist-in-charge at Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Jim Kauahikaua dies . 2023-10-21 . Big Island Now.
  7. Web site: September 2016. Aired April 26, 2016 and August 25, 2020 . James Kauahikaua / Long Story Short with Leslie Wilcox . 2023-05-02 . . Transcript . en.
  8. News: Thompson . Rod . October 1, 2004 . Islander to head observatory . A11 . . 7 May 2023 . Newspapers.com. [<!-- -->[https://archives.starbulletin.com/2004/10/01/news/story12.html Starbulletin.com]]
  9. Web site: Wood . Mark . February 4, 2019 . Running Toward the Volcano . 2023-05-07 . . en-US.
  10. Hon . Ken . Ken Hon . Mulliken . Katie . Orr . Tim . December 2023 . Aloha ʻOe – A Tribute to Jim Kauahikaua . IAVCEI Newsletter . . 3–4 . 4.
  11. Web site: 2011-04-20 . Jim Kauahikaua . 2023-05-02 . Volcano World . . en.
  12. Web site: UH Mānoa alumnus James Kauahikaua . 2023-05-03 . UH Alumni . . en.
  13. Keonehelelei – The Falling Sands . Moniz Nakamura . Jadelyn J. . 2003 . U.S. Department of the Interior.
  14. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Geologic Resources Inventory Report: Natural Resource Report NPS/NRPC/GRD/NRR—2009/163 . Thornberry-Ehrlich . Trista . 2009 . National Park Service. In Web site: NPS Geodiversity Atlas—Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, Hawai'i . National Park Service.
  15. Results from the Department of the Interior Strategic Sciences Group Technical Support for the 2018 Kīlauea Eruption . U.S. Department of the Interior. In Web site: Publication Index . July 2015 . U.S. Department of the Interior.
  16. Web site: NSF Award Search: Award # 0207919 – Thermal and Rheological Controls on the Emplacement of Basaltic Lava Flows . 2023-05-04 . National Science Foundation.
  17. Babb . Janet L. . Kauahikaua . James P. . Tilling . Robert I. . 2011 . The story of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory—A remarkable first 100 years of tracking eruptions and earthquakes . U.S. Geological Survey General Information Product 135 . General Information Product . i-63 . 10.3133/gip135.
  18. Web site: Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park . Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park . 2015-02-27 . Ten Years at the Top: Hawaiian Volcano Observatory's Scientist-in-Charge Steps Aside . 2023-05-07 . Pacific Island National Parks . . en . Wordpress.
  19. Web site: March 6, 2015 . Top volcano scientist leaves Alaska for Hawaii . 2023-05-07 . . Hawaii National Park . en . Associated Press.
  20. Web site: May 22, 2018 . SOEST volcanologists, past and present, play a major direct role in Kilauea science response . 2023-05-07 . University of Hawaiʻi System News . . en-US.
  21. Web site: Kauahikaua . Jim . Jim Kauahikaua . 2023-05-07 . U.S. Geological Survey.
  22. Web site: July 10, 2015 . HVO scientist Jim Kauahikaua receives Meritorious Service Award . . Facebook.
  23. Multiple secondary sources:
  24. Web site: Workshop 2019 scenes-from-an-eruption . 2023-05-03 . Natural Hazards Center . University of Colorado Boulder.
  25. Multiple sources:
  26. Multiple sources:
  27. Book: Kauahikaua, Jim . Volcano: Creation in Motion . Mutual Publishing . Photography by G. Brad Lewis . 2015 . 978-1-939487-476 . New.

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