Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
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How it came to be
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park on the Island of Hawaiʻi takes in Mauna Loa, 4,169 metres high, and Kīlauea, 1,250 metres, two of the most active volcanoes in the world. Measured from the sea floor, Mauna Loa is the largest volcanic mass on Earth, and its lava flows keep reshaping the island.
Native Hawaiians regard the land as sacred and hold that the volcano goddess Pele lives in Halemaʻumaʻu crater at Kīlauea's summit. In 1823 a party of missionaries reached the Kīlauea caldera while it was erupting, among the first Europeans to see it. From the 1840s, hotels for visitors operated on the crater rim.
Hawaii National Park was created on 1 August 1916, together with Haleakalā, and became a separate park under its present name in 1961. It was named a Biosphere Reserve in 1980 and a World Heritage Site in 1987, and the Kahuku Unit was added in 2004. In May 2018 explosions and ash from Halemaʻumaʻu closed the summit area, and the collapses and blasts continued until early August.
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