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Home Videos & Articles Papakolea Beach

Papakolea Beach

 

Papakolea Beach, also known as Green Sand Beach or Mahana Beach is a green sand beach located near South Point, in the Ka u district of the island of Hawaii.  One of only four green sand beaches in the world, the others being Talofofo Beach, Guam, Punta Cormorant on Florena Island In the Galapagos Islands, and Hornindalsvatnet, Norway.  It gets distinctive coloring from the mineral olivine, found in the enclosing cinder cone.

Papakolea Beach is located in a bay half circled by Pu u Mahana, a cinder cone formed over 49,000 years ago and associated with the southwest rift of Mauna Loa.  Since its last eruption, the cinder cone has partially collapsed and been partially eroded by the ocean.  The beach is sometimes named after the cinder cone, and sometimes after the area of land called Papakolea, which comes from papa kolea, which means plover flats in the Hawaiian language.  Papakolea is the area near the crater where the Pacific Golden Plover are sometimes seen in winter.

The cinder cone is rich in olivine, a silicate mineral containing iron and magnesium, also known as peridot when of gen quality.  Olivine is a common mineral comment of Hawaiian lavas and one of the first crystals to form as magma cools.  Olivine is locally known as Hawaiian Diamond and is notably found in Oahu’s famous Diamond Head landmark.  The source of the green coloration of the beach sands is due to the olivine crystals which are winnowed from the eroding headland by the action of the sea.  Olivine, being denser and tougher than the ash fragments, glass and black pyroxene of the rest of the rocks and lava flows, tends to accumulate on the beach whereas the usual volcanic sand is swept out to sea.  Although these crystals are eventually washed away as well, the constant erosion of the cinder cone ensures a steady supply of sand for the foreseeable future.  Eventually, however, the supply will run out and the beach will look like any other beach.

The formation of the cinder cone is currently a point of contention, with some arguing that lava flowing into the sea was suddenly cooled forming an edifice on the coastline and others noting that the cone was most likely too are away from the ocean at the time of formation to make such an event possible.  Regardless of how it was formed , according to the United States Geological Survey, the last lava flow in the area ended over 10,000 years ago, making the area one of the more stable features in the geologically turbulent Ka u region.  As such, the geologic history of the site can be seen in the rock surrounding the beach and bay, which are not subject to erosion and thus display geologic layers formed by previous eruptions, lava flows, and other volcanic events.  In addition, the current patterns of erosion can be seen first-hand, as only the portions at the bottom of the cinder cone collapse have been subject to the waves and turned into green sand; the remaining portions appear gray.

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