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Mega-Landslide Could Shake Hawaii

Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery News

"They just fall apart in your hand," said Thompson of the core's weakest sections. "It's just like sand you find at the beach."

That sand poses a danger because it could be acting like a bunch of ball bearings under a large chunk of land that could give way under certain conditions. In fact, said Thompson, part of the island is already collapsing -- albeit as more of a slump than a slide.

"The whole south part of the island is a slump," said Thompson. An area called the Hilina Slump of the Kilauea volcano, in particular, could be on the way to becoming a faster-moving slide that spreads out onto the sea floor.

One thing that might cause the slump to slide is a drop in sea level, Thompson said.

Previous research has investigated whether the Hawaiian landslides coincide with global ice ages, when huge amounts of water become trapped in polar ice and sea level drops. If sea level drops below the sandy, unstable layer, that could make it even less stable and turn the slump into another great Hawaiian slide.

But that's a big 'if,' Thompson acknowledges. He and his colleagues still have to make the case for a full-fledged layer of that sandy stuff way down there which extends in all directions and creates a slide surface.

To do that will require drilling more holes.

The core from HSDP, however, was 25 years in the making and proved extremely difficult due to cultural issues and equipment problems, said DePaolo. So the current chances of more such probes into the Hawaiian past and future seem unlikely.

Related Links:

Larry O'Hanlon's blog: Earth Impacts

Planet Green

Climate Effects of Volcanic Eruptions

How Stuff Works: Landslides