The East Molokai Volcano, sometimes also known as Wailau for the Wailau valley on its north side, is an extinct shield volcano comprising the eastern two-thirds of the island of Molokai in the U.S. state of

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

Description

The East Molokai has a width of and a length of . It is overlapped by the West Molokai, Lanai and

Haleakalā Haleakalā (; Hawaiian: ), or the East Maui Volcano, is a massive shield volcano that forms more than 75% of the Hawaiian Island of Maui. The western 25% of the island is formed by another volcano, Mauna Kahalawai, also referred to as the West ...

shield volcanoes. Its shield formation began two million years ago and ended 1.5 million years ago whereas its postshield eruptions occurred 1.5 to 1.3 million years ago. The

pahoehoe Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or und ...

shield volcano of the

Kalaupapa Peninsula Kalawao County ( haw, Kalana o Kalawao) is a county in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It is the smallest county in the 50 states by land area and the second-smallest county by population, after Loving County, Texas. The county encompasses the Kala ...

postdates the main shield volcano of East Molokai and is considered to represent the last volcanic phase of East Molokai. East Molokai was one of the seven principal volcanoes, along with West Molokai, Lānai,

West Maui The West Maui Mountains, West Maui Volcano, or Mauna Kahālāwai which means "holding house of water," is approximately 1.7 million years old and forms a much eroded shield volcano that constitutes the western quarter of Maui. Since its last eru ...

, East Maui, Penguin Bank and

Kahoolawe Kahoolawe (Hawaiian: ), anglicized as Kahoolawe (), is the smallest of the eight main volcanic islands in the Hawaiian Islands. Kahoolawe is located about southwest of Maui and also southeast of Lānaʻi, and it is long by wide, with a total l ...

, that formerly constituted the island of

Maui Nui Maui Nui or Greater Maui, is a modern geologists' name given to a prehistoric Hawaiian Island built from seven shield volcanoes. ''Nui'' means "great/large" in the Hawaiian language. 1.2 million years ago, Maui Nui was , 40% larger than the p ...

. The highest point is the peak called Kamakou on the southern rim, at . The Pēpēōpae bog is just below the rim. The northern flank of the volcano has been truncated by enormous cliffs rising from the sea. The sea cliffs were formed when the northern third of the East Molokai Volcano suddenly collapsed and slid off into the sea, about 1.4 million years ago. The landslide was so fast and powerful that it extended into the sea, and generated a -high

megatsunami A megatsunami is a very large wave created by a large, sudden displacement of material into a body of water. Megatsunamis have quite different features from ordinary tsunamis. Ordinary tsunamis are caused by underwater tectonic activity (movemen ...

that inundated the rest of Molokai and severely damaged the surrounding Hawaiian Islands before eventually reaching the coastlines of California and Mexico.

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* * {{Hawaiian volcanism Volcanoes of Maui Nui Landforms of Molokai Geography of Kalawao County, Hawaii Geography of Maui County, Hawaii Shield volcanoes of the United States Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain Polygenetic shield volcanoes Extinct volcanoes Hotspot volcanoes Pleistocene shield volcanoes Pleistocene Oceania Cenozoic Hawaii

Description

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