Kaumana Cave

Last updated
Kaumana Cave
Kaumana Cave.jpg
View upflow in Kaumana Cave towards the main entrance
Location Hawaii County, Hawaii
Coordinates 19°41′12.5838″N155°7′50.8152″W / 19.686828833°N 155.130782000°W / 19.686828833; -155.130782000
Length2.026 miles (2197 m)
AccessPublic
Entrance to the lava tube. Kaumanaentrance.jpg
Entrance to the lava tube.

Kaumana Cave is a lava tube created by a 1881 lava flow from Mauna Loa. [1] The tube has been surveyed at 2.026 miles (2197 m) long making it the 57th longest lava tube in the world. [2]

Contents

The cave is located on the island of Hawaiʻi near the city of Hilo.

A collapsed skylight [3] provides easy access to two of the tube's entrances which became a tourist attraction. Some parts of the tube are located under private property, [4] and so are some of the entrances.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawaii (island)</span> Largest of the Hawaiian islands

Hawaii is the largest island in the United States, located in the eponymous state of Hawaii. It is the southeasternmost of the Hawaiian Islands, a chain of volcanic islands in the North Pacific Ocean. With an area of 4,028 square miles (10,430 km2), it has 63% of the Hawaiian archipelago's combined landmass. However, it has only 13% of the archipelago's population. The island of Hawaiʻi is the third largest island in Polynesia, behind the north and south islands of New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hilo, Hawaii</span> Census-designated place in United States

Hilo is the largest settlement and the county seat of Hawaiʻi County, Hawaii, United States, which encompasses the Island of Hawaii, and is a census-designated place (CDP). The population was 44,186 according to the 2020 census. It is the fourth-largest settlement in the state of Hawaii, the largest settlement in the state outside of Oahu, and the largest settlement in the state outside of the Greater Honolulu Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kona International Airport</span> Airport on Hawaiʻi Island

Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keāhole is the primary airport on the Island of Hawaiʻi, located in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, United States. The airport serves leeward (western) Hawaiʻi island, including the resorts in North Kona and South Kohala. It is one of two international airports serving Hawaiʻi island, the other being Hilo International Airport on the windward (eastern) side.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park</span> National park in Hawaii, United States

Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park is a national park of the United States located in Hawaii on the island of Hawaii. The park encompasses two active volcanoes: Kīlauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, and Mauna Loa, the world's largest shield volcano. The park provides scientists with insight into the development of the Hawaiian Islands and access for studies of volcanism. For visitors, the park offers dramatic volcanic landscapes, glimpses of rare flora and fauna, and a view into the traditional Hawaiian culture connected to these landscapes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lava tube</span> Natural conduit through which lava flows beneath the solid surface

A lava tube, or pyroduct, is a natural conduit formed by flowing lava from a volcanic vent that moves beneath the hardened surface of a lava flow. If lava in the tube empties, it will leave a cave.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wailuku River</span> River in Hawaii, United States

The Wailuku River is a 28.0-mile-long (45.1 km) water course on the Island of Hawaiʻi in the Hawaiian Islands. It is the longest river in Hawai'i and the largest in the state by mean discharge. Its course lies mostly along the divide between the lava flows of Mauna Kea and those of Mauna Loa to the south. It arises at about the 10,800 feet (3,300 m) elevation along the eastern slope of Mauna Kea. It flows generally eastward, descending steeply from the mountain and entering the Pacific Ocean at Hilo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawaii Route 200</span> State highway in Hawaii County, Hawaii

Route 200, known locally as Saddle Road, traverses the width of the Island of Hawaiʻi, from downtown Hilo to its junction with Hawaii Route 190 near Waimea. The road was once considered one of the most dangerous paved roads in the state, with many one-lane bridges and areas of marginally maintained pavement. Most of the road has now been repaved, and major parts have new re-alignments to modern standards. The highway is mostly one-lane in each direction, but there are two lanes on the uphill portions. The highway reaches a maximum elevation of 6,632 feet (2,021 m) and is subject to fog and low visibility. Many rental car companies used to prohibit use of their cars on Saddle Road, but now allow use of the road. The highway experiences heavy use as it provides the shortest driving route from Hilo to Kailua-Kona and access to the slopes of Mauna Loa and the Mauna Kea Observatories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kazumura Cave</span>

Kazumura Cave is a lava tube and has been surveyed at 40.7 miles long and 3,614 feet deep making it the longest and deepest lava tube in the world. The cave is located on the island of Hawaiʻi on the eastern slope of Kīlauea. Kīlauea is the most recently active volcano on the Big Island. The ʻAilāʻau lava flow that contains Kazumura Cave originated from the Kīlauea Iki Crater about 500 years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puna, Hawaii</span> District of Hawaiʻi County, Hawaii

Puna is one of the 9 districts of Hawaii County on the Island of Hawaiʻi. It is located on the windward side of the island and shares borders with South Hilo district in the north and Kaʻū district in the west. With a size of just under 320,000 acres (1,300 km2) or 500 sq. miles, Puna is slightly smaller than the island of Kauaʻi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papakolea Beach</span> Green sand beach in Kaʻū district, Hawaii, US

Papakōlea Beach is a green sand beach located near South Point, in the Kaʻū district of the island of Hawaiʻi. It is one of only four green sand beaches in the world, the others being Talofofo Beach, Guam; Punta Cormorant on Floreana Island in the Galapagos Islands; and Hornindalsvatnet, Norway. It gets its distinctive coloring from olivine sand eroded out of the enclosing volcanic cone.

<i>Caconemobius varius</i> Species of cricket

Caconemobius varius is a species of cricket known by the common name Kaumana cave cricket. It is endemic to the island of Hawai'i, where it inhabits the dark zone of lava tube caves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pohakuloa Training Area</span>

Pōhakuloa Training Area (PTA) is a US military training base located on the high plateau between Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea and the Hualālai volcanic mountains of the island of Hawaiʻi. It includes a small military airstrip known as Bradshaw Army Airfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hilo District, Hawaii</span>

Hilo is a moku or district on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi in the State of Hawaii, U.S.A. In the current system of administration of Hawaiʻi County, the moku of Hilo is divided into North Hilo District and South Hilo District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cueva del Viento</span>

Cueva del Viento is the largest lava tube system in Europe, and the sixth largest in the world, behind a series of lava tubes in Hawaii. It is also considered the most complex volcanic tube in the world, due to its morphology of several levels and passages.

The Cueva de Don Justo is one of approximately 70 caves and volcanic galleries on the island of El Hierro in the Canaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waiākea-Uka</span>

Waiākea-Uka (IPA:/'waj.ə.kei.ə.'u.kə/) is an ancient subdivision (ahupuaʻa) in the Hilo District of the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, located mauka (mountain-side) of the Waiākea ahupua'a; its location is on the lower flanks of the volcano Mauna Loa. Because of this, one meaning of the name 'Waiākea-Uka' can be translated from 'Olelo Hawai'i as '(the) mountain-side (of) Waiākea'. Many ahupua'a have this -uka appellation, as the directions 'mountain-side' and 'sea-side' (makai) are the two best ways of orientating something in space on any of the islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Honokohau Harbor</span>

Honokohau Harbor, officially named Honokohau Small Boat Harbor, is a marina in Kailua Kona, Hawaii, United States It was built during the 1960s on the lava seashore of western Hawaii Island.

The ʻAilāʻau eruption is a prehistoric eruption of Kīlauea volcano on the island of Hawaiʻi in the Hawaiian Islands. Carbon 14 dated from approximately 1410 to 1470 with an eruptive volume of 5.2 ± 0.8 km3 and fed by lava tubes near Kīlauea Iki crater, it was among the last of a series of highly voluminous lava flows since about 1290 that blanketed vast swaths of what is now Hawaii County's Puna District. The Kazumura Cave lava tubes were also created by this eruption. The ʻAilāʻau eruption occurred before written records, but was witnessed by Ancient Hawaiians, and through their oral traditions it is thought to have inspired the Hawaiian myth of ʻAilāʻau, whose name in the Hawaiian language means "forest-eater" in reference to the many forest lands consumed by lava.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hele-On Bus</span> Public transit service on Hawaii Island, Hawaii

Hele-On Bus is the public transport bus service provided by the County of Hawaiʻi on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, within the state of Hawaiʻi, United States. It serves a limited number of routes on limited frequency.

References

  1. Kempe, Stephan (2016), Towards understanding the structure of Kaumana Cave, Hawaii
  2. Gulden, Bob (2020-08-28), World's Longest Lava Tubes, archived from the original on May 15, 2006, retrieved 2021-01-13{{citation}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. Kay, Robert, A Full Description of the Kaumana Caves in Hawaii - USA Today, USA Today, retrieved 2021-01-21
  4. Kaumana Caves in Hilo, Hikespeak, retrieved 2021-01-21