earth science

Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory

Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory rather than just read about it. In short: The Hawaiʻi Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL) is a regional undersea research program within the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, in Honolulu. It is considered one of the more important of the independently run undersea research laboratories in the U.S.

Key takeaways

Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Hawaiʻi Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL) is a regional undersea research program within the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, in Honolulu. It is considered one of the more important of the independently run undersea research laboratories in the U.S. HURL operated two deep diving submersibles, the Pisces IV and Pisces V and specializes in supporting scientific ocean research and exploration. HURL is actively involved in monitoring deep-sea ecosystems, including coral habitats and fisheries, and conducts maritime archaeology research including documenting World War II wreckage from the Attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. HURL suspended operations after the retirement of the support ship Kaʻimikai-o-Kanaloa, but may resume operations in the future.

Science Dive Program The Hawaiʻi Undersea Research Laboratory was founded in cooperation with U.S. government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1980. HURL became a regional center in NOAA's National Undersea Research Program (NURP). The University of Hawaiʻi had been donated the submersible Makaliʻi (formerly Star II), which launched HURL's science dive program on July 14, 1981, with its first dive into the Oak Crater in Eniwetok Atoll. This three-month long expedition included scientists from the Defense Nuclear Agency, Lawrence Livermore Labs, and the Air Force Weapons Agency to conduct research on the effects of nuclear testing. Since 1981, they spent nearly 9,000 hours underwater around the Pacific Ocean. HURL has facilitated the long-term study of the Lo’ihi submarine volcano since 1987 and has analyzed its unique ecosystem and documented the growth of this new Hawaiian Island including investigation the collapse event in 1996. In 2005, they conducted a five-month expedition from Honolulu, Hawaiʻi to New Zealand along the Tonga-Kermadec arc during which they conducted 78 submersible dives and explored 13 different active volcanoes, 12 of which had never been explored before. In 2011, HURL made the first two-sub dive into Lo’ihi's pit crater for a National Geographic documentary and celebrated 1,000 dives with the Pisces submersibles.

At the end of March in 2012, NOAA zeroed out all funding to HURL and closed down its National Undersea Research Center (NURC, formerly NURP). All program assets owned by NOAA were gifted to the University of Hawaiʻi. The lab continued to operate on residual funding and on what limited funding that the University of Hawaiʻi could provide. Anticipating this decline in funding, HURL resurrected some of their old technology by placing their Launch, Recovery, and Transport (LRT) back into service. The LRT-12 and the LRT-30a were submersible pontoon barges, that were used from 1981–1996 to launch the Makaliʻi and the Pisces V respectfully before the arrival of University of Hawaiʻi research ship, Kai’imikai-o-Kanaloa (KOK). By returning to operating of the LRT-30a, the lab was able to reduce their day rate by nearly 70%, thus making them more attractive to potential customers. HURL continued to operate through the 2013 and 2014 dive seasons logging another 46 dives. Maritime Heritage and documentary dives contributed more needed financing, but it was evident that the University of Hawaiʻi would be unable to financially carry the program for any duration without more outside support. By January 1, 2015, nearly all of HURL's staff had been let go leaving only a few personnel to maintain the two submersibles. In June 2015, a proposed science expedition to China had emerged, allowing HURL to proceed with its required refit on the Pisces IV and the addition of more operations personnel. The project was scheduled for March to July 2016. However, after completing their series of test dives and within two days of their scheduled departure, the project was “put on hold” indefinitely due to “increased tensions in the South China Sea”. In the fall of 2016, new interest in the submersibles led to the first dives on Cook and McCall Seamounts and a return visit to the Lo’ihi Volcano funded by Conservation International. This successful exploration was immediately followed by two expeditions funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to the Northwest Hawaiian Islands and Emperor Seamounts in 2016 and 2017 consisting of 24 and 53 coral survey dives. The submersibles' support ship R/V Kaʻimikai-o-Kanaloa was retired in 2019.

Maritime Heritage Discoveries and Ordnance Surveys

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory

In research: Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1980 establishments in Hawaii, Geology of Hawaii, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory in simple terms?

Why does Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory.