Global Volcanism Program

The Global Volcanism Program has no activity reports available for Kahoolawe.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Weekly Reports available for Kahoolawe.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Bulletin Reports available for Kahoolawe.

The Global Volcanism Program has no synonyms or subfeatures listed for Kahoolawe.

Basic Data

Volcano Number

Last Known Eruption

Elevation

Latitude
Longitude

332801

Pleistocene

450 m / 1,476 ft

20.57°N
156.57°W

Morphology

Volcano Landform
Shield

Volcano Types
Shield
Caldera
Pyroclastic cone(s)

Tectonic Setting

Intraplate
Oceanic crust (< 15 km)

Geological Summary

The uninhabited island of Kahoolawe, SW of the island of Maui, consists of a broad, low basaltic shield volcano formed by Pleistocene eruptions along a rift zone that extends SW from a buried, 5-km-wide caldera at the eastern side of the island. The eastern rim of the caldera lies beneath the waters of Kanapou Bay. Two less prominent rift zones trend to the east and north. Much of the island is truncated by steep sea cliffs that expose the thin lava flows making up the volcano. Stearns (1946) and Macdonald and Abbott (1970) considered cinder cones within the caldera on the west side of Kanapou Bay to be of Holocene age, but this age was considered probably too young by Langenheim and Clague (1987), who mapped the cones as Pleistocene or Holocene. Sano et al. (2006) obtained K-Ar dates on the youngest flows of 900,000 to 980,000 years Before Present.

References

The following references have all been used during the compilation of data for this volcano, it is not a comprehensive bibliography.

IAVCEI, 1973-80. Post-Miocene Volcanoes of the World. IAVCEI Data Sheets, Rome: Internatl Assoc Volc Chemistry Earth's Interior.

Langenheim V A M, Clague D A, 1987. The Hawaiian-Emporer volcanic chain, Part II: Stratigraphic framework of volcanic rocks of the Hawaiian Islands. U S Geol Surv Prof Pap, 1350: 55-84.

Macdonald G A, Abbott A T, 1970. Volcanoes in the Sea. Honolulu: Univ Hawaii Press, 441 p.

Robinson J E, Eakins B W, 2006. Calculated volumes of individual shield volcanoes at the young end of the Hawaiian Ridge. J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res., 151: 309-317.

Sano H, Sherrod D R, Tagami T, 2006. Youngest volcanism about 1 million years ago at Kahoolawe Island, Hawaii. J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res., 152: 91-96.

Stearns H T, 1946. Geology of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaii Div Hydrography Bull, 8: 1-105.

Eruptive History

The Global Volcanism Program is not aware of any Holocene eruptions from Kahoolawe. If this volcano has had large eruptions (VEI >= 4) prior to 12,000 years ago, information might be found on the Kahoolawe page in the LaMEVE (Large Magnitude Explosive Volcanic Eruptions) database, a part of the Volcano Global Risk Identification and Analysis Project (VOGRIPA).

Deformation History

There is no Deformation History data available for Kahoolawe.

Emission History

There is no Emissions History data available for Kahoolawe.

Photo Gallery

Recent activity at Haleakalā took place from vents low on the SW rift zone. The lava flows that form the coastline below originated from two vents, one near where this photo was taken and the other below the scoria cone near the center. Kaho’olawe is in the distance to the SW.

Photo by Lee Siebert, 1987 (Smithsonian Institution).

The uninhabited island of Kahoolawe is seen here rising to the SW across a narrow channel from Oneloa beach on the island of Maui. Kahoolawe consists of a broad, low shield volcano formed by Pleistocene eruptions along a rift zone that extends SW from a buried, 5-km-wide caldera at the eastern side of the island. The eastern rim of the caldera lies beneath the waters of Kanapou Bay, which forms the indistinct embayment at the left side of the photo.

Photo by Lee Siebert, 1998 (Smithsonian Institution).

GVP Map Holdings

Maps are not currently available due to technical issues.

Smithsonian Sample Collections Database

The following 1 samples associated with this volcano can be found in the Smithsonian's NMNH Department of Mineral Sciences collections, and may be availble for research (contact the Rock and Ore Collections Manager). Catalog number links will open a window with more information.

Catalog Number	Sample Description	Lava Source	Collection Date
NMNH 117270-63	Volcanic Rock	--	--

External Sites

Copernicus Browser

The Copernicus Browser replaced the Sentinel Hub Playground browser in 2023, to provide access to Earth observation archives from the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, the main distribution platform for data from the EU Copernicus missions.

WOVOdat
   Single Volcano View
   Temporal Evolution of Unrest
   Side by Side Volcanoes

WOVOdat is a database of volcanic unrest; instrumentally and visually recorded changes in seismicity, ground deformation, gas emission, and other parameters from their normal baselines. It is sponsored by the World Organization of Volcano Observatories (WOVO) and presently hosted at the Earth Observatory of Singapore.

GVMID Data on Volcano Monitoring Infrastructure The Global Volcano Monitoring Infrastructure Database GVMID, is aimed at documenting and improving capabilities of volcano monitoring from the ground and space. GVMID should provide a snapshot and baseline view of the techniques and instrumentation that are in place at various volcanoes, which can be use by volcano observatories as reference to setup new monitoring system or improving networks at a specific volcano. These data will allow identification of what monitoring gaps exist, which can be then targeted by remote sensing infrastructure and future instrument deployments.

IRIS seismic stations/networks

Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Data Services map showing the location of seismic stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 0.18° (about 20 km at mid-latitudes) from the given location of Kahoolawe. Users can customize a variety of filters and options in the left panel. Note that if there are no stations are known the map will default to show the entire world with a "No data matched request" error notice.

UNAVCO GPS/GNSS stations

Geodetic Data Services map from UNAVCO showing the location of GPS/GNSS stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 20 km from the given location of Kahoolawe. Users can customize the data search based on station or network names, location, and time window. Requires Adobe Flash Player.

Large Eruptions of Kahoolawe

Information about large Quaternary eruptions (VEI >= 4) is cataloged in the Large Magnitude Explosive Volcanic Eruptions (LaMEVE) database of the Volcano Global Risk Identification and Analysis Project (VOGRIPA).

EarthChem

EarthChem develops and maintains databases, software, and services that support the preservation, discovery, access and analysis of geochemical data, and facilitate their integration with the broad array of other available earth science parameters. EarthChem is operated by a joint team of disciplinary scientists, data scientists, data managers and information technology developers who are part of the NSF-funded data facility Integrated Earth Data Applications (IEDA). IEDA is a collaborative effort of EarthChem and the Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS).