Laupahoehoe

Laupahoehoe Point, on the Big Island's Northwest shore. This is the rainy side of the island. At one time there was a school there, built right by the ocean. On April 1, 1946 a tsunami swept away the school, much of the coast, and about 159 lives. Hawaiians know first-hand the power of Madame Pele.

The fury of earthquakes and volcanoes is leftover energy from the Big Bang. In the first moments of Creation, many billions of Black Holes were created. One tiny singularity survives at Earth's centre. It triggered the planet's formation as a pearl forms around a grain of sand. Radiation from this object eventually makes its way to the surface as heat, which makes Earth a dynamic planet. Life on Earth, or even the planet itself, would not exist save for this tiny object.

We will see in upcoming posts that Hawaii is not the only place threatened by Madame Pele. The islands are just the centre of a Pacific Ring of Fire. On December 26, 2004 South Asia learned the hard way about the power of tsunamis. Even New York City is vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis.

Laupahoehoe is also the site of the Big Island's Train Museum. At one time narrow-gauge railways carried sugar cane down the coast. The coastal railways were another victim of the tsunami. The coal that powered those trains was created by Earth's internal heat. Even the energy of a steam engine originated near the Big Bang.