Vog April 29, 2008

This past weekend, I got to learn about vog, volcanic smog, because it was smothering Honolulu.  According to the Hawaii Volcano Observatory,

There are at least two problems in dismissing vog itself as a not-so-serious hazard. The first problem is that vog (volcanic smog) is a mixture that includes gases but is predominately aerosols (tiny particles and droplets) formed when volcanic gas reacts with moisture, oxygen, and sunlight. It is this unique mixture of gas and aerosols that makes vog both difficult to study and potentially more harmful than either gases or particles alone. What we have learned from limited studies about the aerosols that comprise vog is that most of the aerosols are acidic and are of a size that is readily retained by the lung.

Apparently the Kilauea volcano on the Big Island emits about 2000 tons of volcanic gasses daily, and the Big Island has vog whenever they don’t have wind. Oahu, where Honolulu is, only suffers from vog when the winds are *just* wrong.

That may have been contributing to my horrible cold - the sore throat and headache could definitely have been exacerbated by the vog. I think that today’s runny nose is probably just the cold.

Check out this news story about this weekend’s vog: KGMB9