6 Fun Facts About Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park

Get ready to discover some fascinating Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park fun facts! This unique park is home to awe-inspiring volcanic landscapes where you can witness the raw power of nature in action.

From the largest active volcano on the planet to rare wildlife found nowhere else, Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park is a treasure trove of natural wonders that will leave you amazed.

Podcast Episode Overview

If you’re excited about volcanoes, this Exploring the National Parks episode is for you! Today, we’re diving into six fun facts about Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.

This ever-changing park is a must-see, where you can witness both destruction and creation in action. Join us as we explore the unique features that make Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park truly extraordinary!

In this episode, we discuss:

What makes the plants and wildlife at this park so unique
How people got to Hawai’i a thousand years ago
What makes the islands of Hawai’i so fascinating
What the Hawai’ian Hotspot is and how it created the national park we love today
Where you can find the largest active volcano on the planet
Where you can find the most active volcano on earth

We hope you are blown away by all of these cool facts about Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park (and that you get a chance to get out there and see everything for yourself).

After all, where else do you experience two of the most incredible volcanoes on the planet?! This park constantly changes, so there is always a reason to return.

Listen to the Full Podcast Episode:

1. Over 90% of native plants and animals in Hawai’i are only found in the Hawaiian islands

Because life on the islands evolved in near complete isolation from the rest of the world, over 90% of the plant species and wildlife you’ll find there only live in Hawai’i. The Hawaiian islands have a greater native species diversity specific to Hawai’i than the Galapagos islands. Charles Darwin should have gone to Hawai’i instead!

The Hawaiian islands started as volcanic rock. All the life you see growing and thriving on the islands had to make an epic journey across the Pacific Ocean, whether by boat or bird stomach. This is most evident when you go to the big island of Hawai’i because it’s the youngest of the Hawaiian islands.

Everyone thinks of Hawai’i as lush and green, but there are vast swaths of barren land where a lava flow recently made its way through. This Hawaii national park is a great place to get a feel for just how young and isolated the big island is as you move between rainforest and areas of volcanic activity.

You’ll find birds, insects, and marine life that you won’t find anywhere else in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. That’s why it’s been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve.

On the downside, some endangered species are in decline and cannot be reestablished because their populations are only found in Hawai’i. In good news, the Nene, or Hawaiian Goose, has rebounded thanks to a reintroduction program in the 1950s. Their population went from 30 to several thousand. You’ll likely see signs warning you about the Nene because they are acclimatized to humans and aren’t afraid to get close.

Several native birds can be seen in the national park. We love the Merlin app for helping us identify birds in the wild!

2. Native Hawaiians have lived on the Hawaiian Islands for a thousand years

Native Hawaiians have lived on the islands for millennia, but to get there, they had to sail 2,400 miles across the Pacific Ocean. If you’ve seen Moana, you’ll know what the double-hulled canoes they sailed in looked like.

You can see petroglyphs from the first native Hawaiians along the Chain of Craters road. These people were amazing. They arrived on volcanic rock, and they made it home. They flourished here despite explosive eruptions, limited resources, and often only being able to live off and grow what they brought with them on their canoes.

Pahu Manamana o ʻUmi is a spot you can’t visit in the national park, but it’s like the Polynesian Stone Henge. Scientists have hypothesized that native Hawaiians used Pahu Manamana o ʻUmi for navigation.

Hawaiian culture is a natural wonder to explore. We encourage you to dig into the history and legends of the Polynesians who first arrived in the chaos and eruptions of Hawai’i. The State of Hawai’i is like its own country compared to the rest of the United States.

3. The eight Hawaiian islands we see today are only the most recent formations in a chain of over 80 volcanoes

Pull up a satellite map of Hawai’i and look at the chain of islands. You can see the perfect line of land masses that stretch from the big island of Hawai’i to the northwest for thousands of miles. As you move northwest, you’re traveling back in time by millions of years.

Kama‘ehuakanaloa, previously known as the Lō‘ihi Seamount, is the youngest volcano in this chain. It is located southeast of Hawai’i, still 3,189 ft below sea level, and will become the newest Hawaiian island in a few million more years.

But why do so many volcanoes fall along this perfect line stretching northwest? That leads us to the next of our interesting facts.

4. The line of volcanoes along Hawai’i is like a conveyor belt over the Hawaiian hot spot

The Hawaiian Islands owe their existence to the Hawaiian hot spot—a fixed plume of intensely heated material deep within the Earth. As this heat rises, it melts rock into magma, ascending toward the surface. When some of this magma breaks through, a volcanic eruption occurs.

At the same time, the Pacific Plate, one of Earth’s tectonic plates, drifts slowly northwest at a rate of up to four inches per year. This movement carries away any land produced by volcanic eruptions.

This process is like a conveyor belt, with the stationary hot spot generating new land and the Pacific Plate transporting it away. The gradual formation of the Hawaiian Islands through volcanic activity is often compared to the mythical journey of Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes, to the big island.

A significant role the National Park Service plays at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park is researching the processes occurring on the islands. Park Rangers and other scientists flock to the State of Hawai’i to better understand the park’s incredibly diverse natural resources and geological features.

5. Mauna Loa is the largest active volcano on the planet

Mauna Loa is a shield volcano, so it doesn’t look as dramatic as the volcanoes in the Cascades, like Mount Rainier. In Hawaiian, Mauna Loa means “long mountain,” which aptly describes how it appears on the horizon.

Mauna Loa stands 13,681 feet above sea level. That’s twice the prominence of Colorado’s 14ers, meaning it stands out from its surroundings more than most mountains. Mauna Loa is 30,000 feet tall from the ocean floor – taller than Mount Everest! Its weight bends the ocean floor down.

Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa’s sister volcano, is 120 feet taller, though it’s not located in the national park. You can drive to the top of Mauna Kea! Measuring from the ocean floor, Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the world.

Mauna Kea hasn’t erupted in over 4,500 years. In comparison, Mauna Loa is 90 percent covered by lava flows that have erupted over the last 4,000 years. Mauna Loa’s most recent eruption was at the end of 2022. If you look at the summit of Mauna Loa, you can see the black crater and the rift zone, lava tubes, and lava fields where eruptions happen frequently.

6. Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park is home to one of the world’s most active volcanoes

The State of Hawai’i is home to two national parks, Hawai’i Volcanoes and Haleakalā National Park, and the largest and most active volcanoes. Near Mauna Loa, Kīlauea is located in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park and is the most active volcano on the planet.

The destructive power of the Hawaiian islands’ volcanoes is reflected in the goddess Pele, who is said to have her home in Kīlauea. Kīlauea has been in an active state of eruption for the last 200 years.

In a series of recent eruptions and volcanic activity, the crater floor of Kīlauea turned from a deep lake to a lava lake filled with molten lava that you can occasionally see if you time your trip right.

Are you excited to visit one of Hawai’i’s most incredible natural wonders? We hope you love Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park as much as we do! If you love volcanoes, this is the place to go.

Don’t forget to complete your task for this week! We want you to pull up Google Maps and look at the satellite view of Mauna Loa! You will be blown away by what you see.

Links mentioned in this podcast episode:

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6 Fun Facts About Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park