The Japanese Map of Pearl Harbor

After Japan's successful attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 the commander of the Japanese air squadron, Captain Mitsuo Fuchida, drew up a map to show the damage he had inflicted on the American ships. The completed map was used by Captain Fuchida to brief Emperor Hirohito on the outcome of the attack. This map was acquired by the Library of Congress in 2018. 

The Library of Congress has created a story map, Through the Enemy's Eyes, in order to explain the story behind Fuchida's historic map and to allow the public to explore the map in detail. Through the Enemy's Eyes explains the history behind Japan's attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, which resulted in America entering World War II on the very next day after the attack. 

This account of the Japanese attack includes a number of other vintage maps created by the American Government Printing Office to visualize the attack from the U.S. perspective. The Fuchida map provides a unique view of the attack from a Japanese perspective.

The Fuchida map section of Through the Enemy's Eye explores the map in some detail, including an explanation of the map key. This key includes a number of different ship symbols to show the different type of damage inflicted on American ships, from 'minor damage' to 'sunk'. Red arrows on the map show the direction of Japanese torpedoes. Red dots and crosses show where Japanese bombs exploded.

Through the Enemy's Eyes also provides a brief account of Captain Fuchida's life after the war and the response of the United States to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Elevation of Hawaii

Hawaii Elevation is an interactive map which visualizes elevation data on the Hawaii island of O'ahu. O'ahu is the third-largest of the Hawaiian islands and home to around two thirds of the state's population. The map uses data from the Hawaii Statewide GIS Program's Geospatial Data Portal to show how volcanic activity has shaped the island's geology.

The map includes a slide control which allows the user to control the height of elevation shown on the map. As you raise the height you can see the Koʻolau and the Waiʻanae ranges emerge on the map. The larger of the two, the Koʻolau Range, originally formed as a single mountain. What you can see on the Hawaii Elevation map is the remains of the western half of the original volcano. The entire eastern half of the volcano slid into the Pacific Ocean in prehistoric times. The more western, smaller Waiʻanae Range is what remains of an ancient shield volcano. The last point to emerge on the Hawaii Elevation map is the crest of the Wai'anae Range, called Kaʻala. At 4,025 feet Ka'ala is the highest peak on Oʻahu.

How Sea Walls Destroy Beaches

Propubilica and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser have produced a joint story into how sea walls are helping to cause coastal erosion in Hawaii. Over the last one hundred years Oahu, Maui and Kauai have lost around 25% of their sandy beaches. To help protect their homes from rising seas the owners of sea-front properties often erect sea walls. These sea walls then contribute to the loss of Hawaii's sandy beaches - as over time waves hitting these sea walls pull the sand away from the shore. 

Hawaii's Beaches are Disappearing uses a combination of drone captured video, aerial imagery and maps to document and explain the loss of sandy beaches in Hawaii. These disparate element are tied together using Mapbox's Scrollytelling Template. As you progress through the story maps are used to show you where properties have built sea walls and where Hawaii's sandy beaches have disappeared. Overhead aerial imagery and drone shot videos provide stark illustrations of the power of the sea hitting property sea walls.

In Hawaii the authorities are supposed to have a 'no tolerance' policy towards the building of new sea walls. In reality however property owners are able to exploit a number of loopholes to protect their properties from rising seas. Government officials are also often adverse to denying home owners the right to defend their properties and environmental exemptions are often allowed. The result is that sea-front homes are being protected at the cost of the loss of Hawaii's sandy beaches.

Hawaii's Sea Level Rise Map

The islands of Hawai'i are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise. It is believed that 6,500 structures and 19,800 people in Hawai'i could be exposed to chronic flooding within the next 60 years. The Hawai'i Sea Level Rise Viewer has been released to show which areas of the state will be most affected by rising sea levels.

The map allows users to see which areas could be exposed to coastal hazards from sea level rise, modelling the effect of passive flooding (still water high tide flooding), annual high wave flooding (over wash during the largest wave events of the year), and coastal erosion. The map models sea level rise for four different sea level rise scenarios (these are sea level rises of 0.5 ft, 1.1 ft, 2 ft or 3.2 ft).

The Sea Level Viewer also includes two layers which model the economic loss that could result from rising seas and the possible impact of flooded highways. 38 miles of coastal roads in the state are vulnerable to rising sea level rises. If these become chronically flooded and impassible then access to many communities would become much more difficult. The economic loss layer visualizes the possible cost from land and structures being flooded in the mapped area.

The Hawai'i Sea Level Rise Viewer uses global sea level rise projections from the UN. This model predicts seas could rise by as much as 3.2 feet by the year 2100. More recent models suggest that a rise of 3 feet or more could happen as early as 2060.

Street View of Hawaii's Sunken Island

East Island, one of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, has disappeared. The island, the second-largest in the French Frigate Shoals, was the most important nesting place for green sea turtles. It has now been washed away by Hurricane Walaka.

Despite having been wiped off the map you can still visit East Island on Google Maps. Back in 2013 Google captured Street View imagery of the island, which means you can take a virtual walk around a now sunken island using Google's 360 degree panoramic imagery.


A map of the island can also still be seen on Google Maps. Presumably in the near future Google will remove East Island from Google Maps. Google will then have to make the decision about whether to remove the Street View imagery of the island as well. This is an interesting problem for Google. If they leave the Street View imagery of East Island on Google Maps then the map is in effect out of date. However this imagery is now an important historical record of a place that no longer exists, imagery which Google have a duty to preserve.

For the record, at the time of writing, East Island is also still on OpenStreetMap. If you are worried about rising sea levels then you can always use Flood Maps to check the effect of different levels of sea level rise on your home.

Hawaii's Lava Flows from Space

NASA has released a stunning satellite image of the lava flows erupting from Hawaii's Kilaueu Volcano. The Infrared Glow of Kilaueu's Lava Flows was captured on May 23rd 2018.

NASA's satellite image was captured by Landsat 8. It is a false-color infrared and green light bands image, which helps to highlight the active lava flows. The purple color around the lava flows are clouds being lit from below by the lava itself.


Esri's Kīlauea: Fountains of Fire also includes some recent satellite imagery of the volcano's active lava flows. Esri's story map explores this recent satellite imagery and goes on to explain why Kilaueu is so active.

The map showcases some of the recent satellite imagery of the lava flows. This includes both natural color imagery and false color imagery. This false color imagery uses the near infrared band to show the lave flows with greater clarity.

Esri's story map goes on to show the Kilaueu Volcano's position in the circum-Pacific Belt, where 90% of the Earth's seismic activity occurs. It also takes a much closer look at Kilauenu itself. This examination includes an animated map showing where historical lava flows have occurred, in chronological order, since 1790.

Hawaii on Street View

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Big Island

Google Maps has extended its Street View coverage in Hawaii.

A good place to start exploring the best Street View images on Hawaii’s six major islands is in the Scenic Hawaii collection in the Street View gallery.

It also looks like Google has added a lot more Street View imagery in the Czech Republic.

Via: Google Lat Long

Street View Arrives in Hawaii

Street View today finally arrived in Hawaii.

Here's a nice shot of the statue of Great King Kamehameha outside the Archives Building in Honolulu.



If you want to browse through some more Street Views of famous locations around the world then check out the new Official Google Street View Gallery. The gallery has a number of collections; World Landmarks, US Capitol Buildings, Hawaii Beaches, Obama Hometown Hotspots and Special Attractions.

If you want to view some of the more interesting and risque Street Views that Google aren't so keen to promote you should also check out the unofficial collections at Google Sightseeing and Street View Gallery.

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Message in a Bottle Tracked on Google Maps

Project Niu

Project Niu is a Hawaiian K-12 science curriculum experiment designed to give students hands-on experience of the technologies used in remotely monitoring the ocean. The project involves tracking high tech "messages in a bottle" that are set afloat in the Pacific Ocean.

The set adrift 'bottles' follow a path similar to floating marine debris, giving students a personal understanding of the widespread damage that can be caused by careless or irresponsible actions.

The site uses Google Maps to track the 'bottles' as they drift in the Pacific Ocean. The map includes tools for pupils to measure distances on the map and draw projected paths. Visitors to the site can also have a go at guessing where the bottle will end up.

The bottles are also collecting data whilst on their journeys. This data on temperature, wave height, humidity etc. can also be viewed on the Project Niu website.

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