Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park

Site information

• Official name: Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park
• Location: Hawaii, United States
• Type: Natural
• Year of inscription: 1987

As an area protected as a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site, the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park is considered to be of outstanding value to the world because it offers a unique glimpse into volcanic processes that shaped the landscape over thousands of years. The area includes volcanic rock, frozen lava, petrified trees, deserts, and rainforest. It was designated as a national park in 1916, decades before Hawaii became a state in 1959. The protected area includes both Mauna Loa, which at 4,170 miles high is the largest of all volcanic islands, and Kilauea, which is more active than any other volcano in the world. During Kilauea's eruptions, visitors standing on the Chain of Craters Road may observe lava pouring from the underground Pu'u O'o Vent into the Pacific Ocean.

The total area of the park is 87,940 hectares, and the area is filled with birds, forests, and giant ferns that are found nowhere else. It is also home to endangered sea turtles. The park serves as a major research area for scientists, teachers, and students of various disciplines and provides significant information on climate change that is of global importance. The area is rich with native Hawaiian history, not least because the Halema‘uma‘u Crater on Kilauea is believed to be the home of the goddess Pele, who rules over the volcano. Hawaiians hold the site sacred.

History

Some seven hundred thousand years ago, the islands of Hawaii were created by volcanic eruptions. In the twenty-first century, four volcanoes are considered active, but eruptions since the early nineteenth century have taken place on either Mauna Loa or Kilauea. Because the air rolls down above Mauna Loa, scientists located the Mauna Loa Observatory at the top of the volcano. The observatory provides ongoing information on carbon dioxide levels and allows scientists to make predictions about the impact of those levels on global warming and climate change.

The first Western scientists arrived on the islands in 1794 under the leadership of Archibald Menzies, a Scottish naturalist. In 1841, Charles Wilkes, a lieutenant in the United States Navy, arrived to study gravity. While climbing to an altitude of twelve thousand feet, his team was beset by altitude sickness, snow-blindness, debilitating diarrhea, and various injuries. Beginning in the 1920s and accelerating after World War II, scientists promoted the idea of an observatory on Mauna Loa. By the mid-1950s, the Hawaiian government and locals in the area worked together to build a new road going up to Mauna Loa. The Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park began serving as the International Biosphere Reserve in 1980, and seven years later, the area was designated as a World Heritage Site.

Much of the information known about Mauna Loa and Kilauea was provided by Tomas A. Jagger, the American volcanologist who served as founder and director of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Jagger remained at the observatory from 1912 to 1940, and his legacy is still evident in the museum that bears his name. The internationally recognized Volcano House, the only hotel in the park, began life in 1846 as a grass shack.

Both Mauna Loa and Kilauea are classified as shield volcanoes because of their shapes. Mauna Loa produced major eruptions in 1942, 1949, 1975, and 1981, but its last eruption was in 1984. Kilauea has been erupting for at least twenty-five hundred years. In the 1400s, one eruption persisted for sixty years. Kilauea has continued to erupt regularly since January 1983 when an eruption occurred at Pu'u O'o Crater. The presence of active lava and other phenomena from the ongoing eruption is a major draw for both visitors and scientists to the park, though the volcanic activity also occasionally disrupts park operations. For well over a hundred years, Halema‘uma‘u was Kilauea's most active vent, but it has also had silent periods. In 2008, a Kilauea eruption created a new lava lake at Halema‘uma‘u. In December 2016, a wall at Halema‘uma‘u collapsed, setting off a major explosion. The crater continued to evolve, most notably with a drop in the level of the lava lake in May 2018 that set off a series of earthquakes, explosions, and gas discharges that forced the closure of most of the park.

Earthquakes are considered the most dangerous aspect of eruption events, as explosions and slow-moving lava flow cause damage but typically are not threatening to the public as long as park closure protocol is followed. Ash fall is also considered non-life threatening, though park rangers warn that it can create low visibility and other dangers for driving. When volcanic activity forces the closure of parts of the park, the US Geological Survey (USGS) Hawaiian Volcano Observatory monitors conditions and determines when the National Park Service can assess the impacts and reopen the park.

It has been estimated that from 250,000 to 650,000 cubic feet of lava pour from Kilauea every day. Within eleven years after the 1983 eruption, enough lava had been released to create 391 acres of new land area in Hawaii. That area has since expanded to over 570 acres on Hawaii's southern coast. Some five hundred years ago, when the lava lake inside Kilauea disappeared, it created the hollow cave that is known as the Thurston Lake Tube. Underground, the Pu'u O'o Vent in the East Rift Zone channels lava from Kilauea into the Pacific Ocean. The area outside Thurston Lake Tube is made up of rainforest.

Beginning in 2019, a small lake formed in Halema'uma'u. In December 2019, a significant eruption began in the crater, boiling away the lake and partially filling the crater with lava. In 2022, the Mauna Loa volcano erupted. That same year, Pohue Bay and much of the land surrounding it were transferred to the National Park Service, significantly expanding the park.

Significance

The inscription of the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park as a World Heritage Site is based on Criterion viii, which describes the area as an outstanding example of ongoing geological processes that advance understanding of the earth's evolution. Mauna Loa is considered the largest mountain in the world. With an elevation 13,679 feet above sea level and a height that rises 42,420 feet from the floor of the ocean, Mauna Loa is said to be fifty times larger than Japan's Mount Fuji. The weight of Mauna Loa is causing the ocean floor below it to sink over time. Since 2002, scientists began recording signs that indicate that Mauna Loa was preparing to erupt again.

Kilauea, which is located on the southeastern slope of Mauna Loa, rises four thousand feet. Its walls are from two hundred to five hundred feet high. Pu'u O'o Crater lies twelve miles away from Kilauea's summit. Crater Rim Drive stretches for 10.6 miles, encompassing Kilauea Caldera, the deep depression located at the top of Kilauea. Points of interest along that drive include Kilauea Overlook, the Jagger Museum, the Halemaumau Crater Devastation Trail, Kilauea Iki Crater Overlook, and the Thurston Lava Tube.

The park offers a wide range of national wonders. In some areas, lichens have caused the pavement to break down, clearing the way for the growth of ohi'a trees and other wooded areas. There are a wide range of animals, including carnivorous caterpillars, the largest dragonfly found anywhere in the world, and cricket species that populate the area created by new lava. The sea turtles of the area are endangered. Bats are the only terrestrial mammal that are native to the area. Experts have identified twenty-three different species of songbirds native to Hawaii, and six of those are found in the park. The area is also known for its honey creepers, the native thrush, and the Hawaiian goose or nēnē, which is among the most endangered bird species in the world.

While visiting the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, visitors have easy access to other attractions such as Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park, Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail, Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, and Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic Site. The park has a significant impact on the local economy: in 2023 park visitors spent $148 million, an increase of 4 percent from the previous year, in the communities around the park. Accordingly, park closures due to volcanic activity or other factors have a significant negative economic effect.

Bibliography

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"Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park." National Park Service, 6 Nov. 2024, www.nps.gov/havo/index.htm. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

"Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. World Heritage List. World Heritage Cultural Centre, UNESCO, 2016. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/409. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

Levin, Harold. The Earth through Time. Wiley, 2013.

Mims, Forrest M., III. Hawai'i's Mauna Loa Observatory: Fifty Years of Monitoring the Atmosphere. U of Hawaii P, 2012.

"Sacred Cauldron: Hawai'i's Volcanoes National Park. National Park Foundation and National Park Service, www.nationalparks.org/explore-parks/hawaii-volcanoes-national-park. Accessed Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.