Geology of the Big Island of Hawai‘i

Island of Hawai‘i

The Big Island of Hawai‘i• Youngest Hawaiian island• Five volcanoes above sea level: Kohala, Mauna Kea,

Hualalai, Mauna Loa, and Kilauea

• Two submarine volcanoes: Mahukona and Lo‘ihi

• Submarine rift zones• Giant submarine landslides• Pahala Ash

– a layer of weathered ash found all over the island

– may come from more than one volcano• Mauna Kea in the north

• Kilauea in the south

– has been used to try to correlate age of Big Island volcanoes

submarine rift zones

Lō‘ihi Seamount

submarineland slides

submarineland slides

submarine rift zone

Kohala

Mauna Kea

KīlaueaMauna Loa

Hualālai

distribution and thickness ofPāhala Ash

Kohala Volcano• Oldest of the Big Island volcanoes

• A single set of rift zones (two total)

• No exposed caldera--probably buried by postshield lavas

• Shield Stage rocks:– Pololo Member, 500 to 300 k.y.a. (k.y.a. = thousand years ago)

– tholeiitic basalt, exposed in valley walls

– alkalic basalts appear toward end of shield stage

• Postshield Stage rocks:– Hawi Member, 260 to 60 k.y.a.

– mostly mugearite, some trachyite (alkalic rocks more felsic than hawaiite)

• Amphitheater-headed valleys, such as Waipi‘o Valley– are drowned valleys; were cut when local sea level was lower

• Giant submarine landslides

Kohala Volcano

cinder cones near the summit of Kohala Volcano

Waipi‘o Valley before the tsunami of 1946

Mauna Kea Volcano• Three rift zones (postshield stage)• Filled caldera• Shield Stage rocks

– Hamakua Member, 380 k.y.a. to ?• tholeiitic basalts grading upwards into alkalic rocks (alkalic basalts and

hawaiiites)• exposed in sea cliffs along the Hamākua Coast

• Postshield Stage rocks– Laupahoehoe Member, ? to 4 k.y.a– buries most of the shield stage rocks– mostly hawaiite– eruptions restricted to upper slopes of the volcano– most eruptions also formed large cinder cones– form a steep-sided “cap” on the surface of the old shield

volcano

• Had ice-age glaciers on its summit

grooves cut by the motion of glaciers

Hualalai Volcano• end of Subaerial Shield Stage/start of Postshield Stage

– Hualalai Member, 13 k.y.a. to present (1801 A.D.)

– alkalic basalts, a few hawaiites, and a trachyte• no tholeiitic rocks are exposed at the surface!

– Lavas commonly contain pieces of country rocks called xenoliths• many are highly crystalline, phaneritic rocks

– represent pieces of an older, solidified magma chamber

– gabbro (plagioclase and pyroxene) and peridotites (mostly olivine and pyroxene)

• Pu‘u Wa‘awa‘a– a trachyte pumice cone; also contains obsidian

– produced a very thick lava flow

– produced from an isolated magma chamber?

• Since this volcano has been active at the same time as Mauna Loa, its lava flows are interbedded with Mauna Loa lava flows

Pu‘u Wa‘awa‘a

trachyte lava flow

Mauna Loa Volcano• Largest volcano on earth

• has a caldera and two main rift zones

• normal faulting, especially along southwest rift zone

• giant submarine landslides off its southwestern flank

• only has Subaerial Shield Stage rocks exposed– all rocks are tholeiitic basalts

– Ninole Member, ~540 k.y.a.• oldest exposed rocks on the island of Hawai‘i

• may represent an extinct earlier volcano or an early stage of Mauna Loa

• named for the Ninole Hills, former ridges between amphitheater-headed valleys that have been overrun by later Mauna Loa eruptions

– Kahuku Member (unknown age)• lavas that bury the Ninole Member

• separated from younger lavas by an erosional surface

– Ka‘u Member, 300 k.y.a. to present• produced by current eruptive activity

• covers the surface of most of the volcano

– may be nearing the end of main shield-building activity since it has less

frequent eruptions than Kilauea

fault scarp

fault scarp

Nīnole Hills

Mauna KeaMauna Loa

Kīlauea

Ninole Hills

Kealakeua Bay

fault scarp

South Point

fault scarp

Kilauea Volcano• Most active volcano on earth

– has been continuously erupting since 1983 from vents on the east rift zone

• has a caldera and two main rift zones– caldera bounded by normal fault scarps

– faulting produces benches in the caldera walls

– rift zones have small lava shields, spatter cones, and cinder cones

• slumping of southern (seaward) flank produces normal faulting– results from expansion of rift zones due to dike injection

– seaward flank has dropped more than 600 meters

– can produce large earthquakes and tsunamis

• only has Subaerial Shield Stage rocks exposed– all rocks are tholeiitic basalts

– Hilina Member, 100 to 31 k.y.a

– Pahala Ash, ~31 k.y.a.• contains Pele’s tears and Pele’s hair

– Puna Member, 30 k.y.a. to present

fault scarps

motion of south flank

Mauna Loa

Kilauea Caldera

Kilauea Caldera

fumaroles in Kilauea Caldera

Southwest Rift Zone

Southwest Rift Zone

Current Eruptive Activity

lava flows

faultscarps