HIGP is a multi-disciplinary institute conducting advanced research, technology development, teaching, workforce training, and service in cutting-edge oceanographic, atmospheric, geophysical, geological, and planetary science and engineering. We are a part of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the Mānoa (Honolulu) campus of the University of Hawai‘i. Our Institute is home to approximately 100 faculty members, staff, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students with access to state-of-the-art laboratories and instrumentation, research vessels, and far-ranging field sites. HIGP partners with the College of Engineering for satellite fabrication and launch through the Hawai‘i Space Flight Laboratory. Our expertise spans the globe from pole to pole, from the deep Earth interior to the upper atmosphere, and extends to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
June 17, 2019 University Tenure and Promotion Announcements
We are pleased to announce the tenure of Hope Ishii (HIGP Associate Researcher and Director of the Advanced Electron Microscopy Center) and the tenure with promotion to Associate Researcher of Bin Chen in Mineral Physics research. Congratulations.
June 7, 2019 Lāna‘i Island Project Updates from Hawai‘i Groundwater & Geothermal Resources Center
The HGGRC online repository provides historical and newly developed information relating to groundwater and geothermal resources in Hawai‘i. HGGRC strives to increase access to data regarding these resources, encourage research and innovation in water management and geothermal energy, provide an informational platform for the public, and supply policymakers with the necessary information to optimally utilize Hawai‘i's natural resources.
May 22, 2019 Lab Results Show How Water in Lunar Soil Can Be Produced by Combination of Solar-wind Proton Implantation and Micrometeorite-impact Heating
For the first time, a cross-disciplinary study has shown chemical, physical, and material evidence for water formation on the Moon. Two teams from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa collaborated on the project: physical chemists in the Department of Chemistry's W.M. Keck Research Laboratory in Astrochemistry and HIGP planetary scientists Jeffrey Gillis-Davis, Hope Ishii, John Bradley, and Laura Corley, utilizing the UH Advanced Electron Microscopy Center (AEMC). The results of their laboratory simulation experiments combined with imaging analyses explain how thermal shocks (produced by micrometeorite impacts) on lunar material, which has been implanted with solar-wind protons, can make and trigger the release of water from broken vesicles. The team's publication in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences appeared online May 20: Untangling the Formation and Liberation of Water in the Lunar Regolith. Read Marcie Grabowski's SOEST News Release and more at Space.com.
20 May 2019 Patty Fryer Advises Expedition to World's Deepest Ocean
HIGP Professor Patricia Fryer participated as science advisor for the recent Mariana Trench expedition led by extreme explorer Victor Vescovo. During the expedition, which ended on May 9, 2019, the submersible DSV Limiting Factor dove four times in the Challenger Deep area, reaching the greatest depth record, and once in the Sirena Deep, the second deepest part of the Mariana Trench.
Left to right: Don Walsh (Mariana Trench diver on the bathyscaphe Trieste in the Navy's 1960 Operation Nekton), Patricia Fryer, Steve Chappell, Victor Vescovo. Photo credit: Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
Fryer, who is also an alumna of the SOEST Department of Earth Sciences (formerly Department of Geology and Geophysics), was requested on this expedition for her expertise in the Mariana Trench. She was there when the first remotely-operated vehicle from the United States dove to the Challenger Deep in 2009. And Fryer was a member of the expedition in 2012 during which James Cameron became the first person to complete a solo dive to the deepest place on Earth to that date, see our 2012 news item. "Being a part of this recent expedition was thrilling!" said Fryer. "This exemplifies the incredible, incremental advances we are making as a scientific community in looking at the world's deepest ocean." Vescovo brought back sediment and a couple of rocks from the Sirena Deep that Fryer is examining at UH Mānoa. By Marcie Grabowski. See the SOEST Press Release, UH News, and BBC News Report.
15 May 2019 Jeff Taylor on Blue Origin's Blue Moon Science Advisory Board
HIGP/SOEST/UH Mānoa Researcher Emeritus Jeff Taylor has been named a member of the Science Advisory Board for the Blue Origin lunar lander, called Blue Moon. Board membership was revealed during a press conference by Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos on May 9, 2019 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The five other scientists on the advisory board are Harrison "Jack" Schmitt (Apollo 17 astronaut, geologist), Steve Squyres (professor of astronomy at Cornell University), Bradley Jolliff (Scott Rudolph professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis), Dean Eppler (former geologist at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and field tester of experimental spacesuits), and Ryan Watkins (research scientist with the Planetary Science Institute). The Board provides feedback to the Blue Moon team about lunar surface composition and material properties, sampling strategies, lander design, landing site selection, lunar science goals, and resource exploration.
"Serving on this advisory board and working with Blue Moon is one of the most exciting opportunities I have had," Taylor said. "The Blue Moon project is the beginning of the second stage of human exploration of the Moon, and the one I hope leads to permanent settlement." For more information on Blue Moon, visit www.blueorigin.com. "Space exploration is far from a diversion in addressing pressing problems on Earth," Taylor said, "it's part of the solution. Using space resources expands Earth's natural resources and opens up vast new opportunities for the benefit of people on Earth." See also UH News.
15 May 2019 HyTI CubeSat Mission Selected For NASA Launch Initiative
The Hyperspectral Thermal Imager (HyTI), a 6U CubeSat satellite designed and developed by researchers and engineers at UH Mānoa, is among 16 small research satellites from 10 states that NASA has selected to fly as auxiliary payloads aboard space missions planned to launch in the next three years. The Hawai‘i team has now received confirmation of placement on a launch manifest.
Schematic of the HyTI nanosatellite. Credit: HyTI, UH Mānoa.
Currently, 12 UH Mānoa team members, nine of whom earned degrees at UH Mānoa, are working to ready the HyTI CubeSat for launch. HIGP received $3.9 million from NASA in August 2018 in support of a two-year project to develop HyTI. "HyTI represents an important interdisciplinary project involving HIGP instruments and science along with Hawai‘i Space Flight Laboratory (HSFL) engineering support, all in a very small satellite format," said Robert Wright, Interim Director of HIGP and principal investigator of the HyTI project.
CubeSats, also known as nanosatellites, are small satellites intended for low-Earth orbit that can explore a variety of scientific and technological questions. HIGP, in collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and several companies, will demonstrate with the HyTI CubeSat Mission how new technology, some of which was invented in HIGP, can be used to monitor water resources and volcanic hazards from space. "This project is a highly collaborative effort, building on many previous federally funded projects in remote sensing, instrument development, and small satellite technology that HIGP, HSFL, and SOEST have executed in the past," said Wright. For more see NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative. By Marcie Grabowski for SOEST News.
07 May 2019 "The Future of Space Tourism" Public Lecture by Alumnus Jim Bell
The UH Department of Earth Sciences is hosting Alumni Days on May 17–18, 2019, including a special public lecture titled "The Future of Space Tourism" by Jim Bell (M.S. 1989 and Ph.D. 1992). Bell's doctorate research at ES/HIGP focused on Mars surface mineralogy and climate variations. The lecture is scheduled for May 17 at 6 p.m. in the Art Auditorium room 132. See the flyer.
03 May 2019 Enrollment is Open for Summer Fieldschool Program in Hydrogeophysics in Volcanic Environments
GG 699: Summer Fieldschool in Hydrogeophysics in Volcanic Environments is a 3-credit directed-research course being offered for the first time by Niels Grobbe, who holds joint positions in HIGP and the Water Resources Research Center (WRRC). The course will run from June 1-24 (June 2-22 for people already on-island), and it is partly sponsored by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists. The course fee of $226 includes tuition, local transportation to and from the study sites, and food/drinks. For more information about the course and registration, please see and the UH Summer 2019 Class Availability webpage and the GG 699 course flyer (pdf). Registration information is also available by contacting Alan Hunley, hunley@hawaii.edu or 808-956-3411.
01 May 2019 Students Strive
HIGP/G&G doctorate students, Casey Honniball and Abigail Flom are featured in "Meet the Daring Young Women Striving for a Life in Space," an article written by Alex Lin for supercluster.com. Read it here.
Find out what else is happening through the SOEST News and Press Releases.
HIGP Mission Statement
HIGP solves fundamental problems in Earth and Planetary Science by the development and application of state-of-the-art exploration, measurement, and data analysis technologies. HIGP serves society and the State of Hawai‘i by acquiring and disseminating new knowledge about the Earth and other planetary bodies, and developing and introducing leading edge technologies and a highly trained workforce to the State economy.
Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology
School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology
University of Hawai‘i
1680 East-West Road,
Pacific Ocean Science & Technology (POST) Building, Room 602
Honolulu, HI 96822
Office Phone: 808.956.8760
Fax: 808.956.3188 Dr. Robert Wright, Interim Director
Visit us: On smartphone or GPS, you can type the following latitude, longitude into Google maps: 21.2975, -157.8161.
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Top banner images: HIGP excels in advanced research, teaching, and service. Our expertise spans the globe from pole to pole, from the depths of the seas to the tops of volcanoes, and extends to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. These images show, from left to right: satellite communication dish, a map of tsunami wave heights, map of mid-ocean ridge/seafloor spreading, the IMI (Imaging and Mapping Instrument) deep-towed ocean sonar system, Earth's Moon, active Hawaiian lava flow, Mars, a meteorite collected in Antarctica, and GPS field station.
