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Haleakala National Park was established on the island of Maui to preserve the outstanding features of Haleakala
Crater. Later additions to the park gave protection to the unique and
fragile ecosystems and rare biotic species of Kipahulu Valley, the
scenic pools along 'Obe'o Gulch, and the coast. Haleakala is the largest eastern dormant volcano, reached its greatest height, 3,600 meters (12,000 feet) above the ocean--some 9,100 meters (30,000 feet) from its base on the ocean floor. |
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Click on any photo below to magnify |
Haleakala Crater, House of the Sun |
Inside Crater, Haleakala National Park |
Cinder Cones, Haleakala National Park |
Haleakala Summit, Haleakala National Park |
Cinder Cones, Haleakala National Park |
Lava Flow Rock, Haleakala National Park |
The silversword plant, called ahinahina or "gray-gray" by the Hawaiians is a member of the sunflower family. It grows for 5 to 20 years. This spectacular plant with its many dagger-like silvery leaves develops a cluster of 100 to 500 yellow and reddish-purple flower heads. It blooms once in its life and dies after blooming. It probably descended from ancestors whose seeds was carried by air currents across the Pacific from the Americas. |
Of Volcanos and the Sea -- Of Valleys and Cascades
Haleakala Crater is now a
cool, cone-studded reminder of
a once-active volcano. Streaks of
red, yellow, gray, and black
trace the courses of recent and
ancient lava, ash, and cinder
flows. The volcanic rocks slowly
break down as natural forces reduce them to minute particles
which are swept away by wind,
heavy rain, and intermittent
streams.
A fiery birth beneath the sea
Modern geology indicates that
the Hawaiian Islands are situated near the middle of the
"Pacific Plate," one of a dozen
thin, rigid structures covering
our planet like the cracked shell
of an egg. Though adjoining
each other, these plates are in
constant slow motion, the Pacific
Plate moving northwestward
several centimeters per year.
Scattered around the world are
many weak areas in the earth's
crust where magma slowly wells
upward to the surface as a
"plume." Here volcanoes and
volcanic "lands, such as Maui,
are born.
This constant northwestward
movement of the Pacific Plate
over a local volcanic "hot spot,"
or plume, has produced a series
of islands one after another in
assembly line fashion. The result
is a chain of volcanic islands
stretching from the island of
Hawaii along a southeast-
northwest line for 4,050 kilo-
meters (2,500 miles) toward
Japan. |
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Website Design and Construction by Lynn Marie Tillquist All Photographs and graphics by Lynn Marie Tillquist
© 1992 copyright |
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