Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

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Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
IUCN Category II (National Park)

Location	Hawaii, USA
Nearest city	Hilo
Coordinates	19°23′0″N 155°12′0″W / 19.38333, -155.2
Area	330,000 acres (1348 km²)
Established	August 1, 1916
Visitors	1,612,246 (in 2006)
Governing body	National Park Service

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
State Party	United States of America
Type	Natural
Criteria	viii
Reference	409
Region†	Europe and North America
Inscription History
Inscription	1987 (11th Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List. † Region as classified by UNESCO.

Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, established in 1916, displays the results of hundreds of thousands of years of volcanism, migration, and evolution—processes that thrust a bare land from the sea and clothed it with complex and unique ecosystems and a distinct human culture. The park encompasses diverse environments that range from sea level to the summit of the earth's most massive volcano, Mauna Loa at 13,677 feet. Kīlauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, offers scientists insights on the birth of the Hawaiian Islands and visitors' views of dramatic volcanic landscapes. The park includes 505 mi² (1348 km²) of land.

Over half of the park is designated wilderness and provides unusual hiking and camping opportunities. In recognition of its outstanding natural values, Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park has been designated as an International Biosphere Reserve and a World Heritage Site.

The volcanic activity generated in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park helped create Kalapana (now covered by lava from recent eruptions) and other black sand beaches.

It is said that if any volcanic rock or black sand is taken from Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park (or anywhere in Hawaiʻi) that the person that took it will be cursed by the Hawaiian volcano goddess Pele until it is returned. While purportedly an ancient Hawaiian belief, historians can trace this legend only to the mid twentieth century, and it is widely believed to have been invented by park rangers to keep visitors from taking rocks. Nevertheless, the lobby of Kīlauea Military Camp (now a vacation area for military personnel) has a cabinet displaying rocks returned by people attempting to atone for the bad luck that has befallen them, and letters describing their predicaments.

Russ Apple may have been the originator of this myth; as National Park Service Pacific historian and 30 year veteran of the National Park Service, Apple was instrumental in restoring Hawai'ian cultural resources in Kīlauea and Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park in Kailua Kona, Hawai'i.^{[citation needed]}

Within the Park boundaries are the Thurston Lava Tube, a lava tube approximately 350 years old with a short hiking trail running through it, and the Kīlauea Caldera, skirted by the Volcano House Hotel, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, and the Jaggar Museum.

There is an undeveloped stretch of the Thurston Lava Tube which extends an additional 330 meters beyond the developed area and dead-ends into the hillside. Though it is blocked by a chain link fence to keep unwary visitors from entering, the easily traversed stretch is in fact open to the public and accessible through a gate in the fence. Visitors to the undeveloped stretch should exercise caution on the brief climb down to the tube floor due to the rough terrain. Once past the entrance, the rest of the walk is on even ground.

Kīlauea and its Halemaʻumaʻu caldera were traditionally considered the sacred home of Pele, and Hawai'ians visited the crater to offer gifts to the goddess. The first western visitors to the site, English missionary William Ellis and American Asa Thurston, encountered Kīlauea in 1823. Ellis wrote of his reaction to the first sight of the erupting volcano:

A spectacle, sublime and even appalling, presented itself before us. 'We stopped and trembled.' Astonishment and awe for some moments rendered us mute, and, like statues, we stood fixed to the spot, with our eyes riveted on the abyss below.^[1]

Lorrin A. Thurston, the American reverend's grandson, would be the driving force behind the establishment of the park in 1916.

Hawaiʻi national parks.	Lava erupting from the Puʻu ʻŌʻō vent	Old lava flows covering roads	Slow moving lava can be approached quite closely
Sea arch caused by lava flow near the flowing lava site.	Pāhoehoe Lava is entering Pacific