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A National Park Service researcher carefully navigates steep vegetation along the rim of Kauhakō Crater while conducting quarterly water quality monitoring at this remarkable volcanic lake on Molokai's Kalaupapa Peninsula. This geologically distinctive crater lake plunges to an extraordinary depth of 814 feet despite its small surface area, giving it the greatest depth-to-surface area ratio of any lake on Earth. The brackish surface waters, which experienced a dramatic ecosystem-altering overturning event in 2011, transition to anaerobic, hydrogen sulfide-rich depths below six feet—creating a stratified aquatic environment that scientists monitor to understand both its unique ecological properties and its vulnerability to environmental change within this culturally and scientifically significant Hawaiian landscape.
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Jonathan Kingston
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3280x4928 / 12.1MB
http://www.kingstonimages.com
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Science Revealed | Making Wonder Visible
A National Park Service researcher carefully navigates steep vegetation along the rim of Kauhakō Crater while conducting quarterly water quality monitoring at this remarkable volcanic lake on Molokai's Kalaupapa Peninsula. This geologically distinctive crater lake plunges to an extraordinary depth of 814 feet despite its small surface area, giving it the greatest depth-to-surface area ratio of any lake on Earth. The brackish surface waters, which experienced a dramatic ecosystem-altering overturning event in 2011, transition to anaerobic, hydrogen sulfide-rich depths below six feet—creating a stratified aquatic environment that scientists monitor to understand both its unique ecological properties and its vulnerability to environmental change within this culturally and scientifically significant Hawaiian landscape.