Mānana Island is an uninhabited

islet An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/ ...

located off Kaupō Beach, near Makapuu at the eastern end of the island of

Oahu Oahu (, , sometimes written Oahu) is the third-largest and most populated island of the Hawaiian Islands and of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital, Honolulu, is on Oahu's southeast coast. The island of Oahu and the uninhabited Northwe ...

in the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands () are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii in the south to nort ...

. In the

Hawaiian language Hawaiian (', ) is a critically endangered Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family, originating in and native to the Hawaiian Islands. It is the native language of the Hawaiian people. Hawaiian, along with English, is an offi ...

, ''mānana'' means "

buoyant Buoyancy (), or upthrust, is the force exerted by a fluid opposing the weight of a partially or fully immersed object (which may be also be a parcel of fluid). In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of the weight of t ...

". The islet is commonly referred to as Rabbit Island, because its shape as seen from the nearby Oahu shore looks something like a

rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

's head and because it was once inhabited by introduced rabbits. The rabbit colony was established by

John Adams Cummins John Adams Kuakini Cummins (March 17, 1835 – March 21, 1913) was a member of the nobility of the Kingdom of Hawaii who became a wealthy businessman, and was involved in politics as the kingdom was overthrown. Life John Adams Kuakini Cummins ...

in the 1880s when he ran the nearby Waimānalo plantation. The rabbits were eradicated about a hundred years later because they were destroying the native ecosystem, an important

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

breeding area. Mānana is a

tuff cone Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic landforms. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and s ...

with two vents or craters. The highest point on the islet rises to . The island is long and wide and has an area of about . Mānana's only

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

is a small

storm beach A storm beach is a beach affected by particularly fierce wind wave, waves, usually with a very long fetch (geography), fetch. The resultant landform is often a very steep beach (up to 45°) composed of rounded Cobble (geology), cobbles, shingle be ...

on the west to south-west (

leeward In geography and seamanship, windward () and leeward () are directions relative to the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e., towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point o ...

) side of the islet. This sand deposit, located above the reach of the normal waves, is about wide and curves around to the western side of the island. Another volcanic islet named Kāohikaipu sits right next to Mānana. Manana was formed by the Honolulu Volcanic Series. These series of eruptions were responsible for creating other tuff cones such as Punchbowl Crater. Mānana is a State Seabird Sanctuary—home to over 10,000

wedge-tailed shearwater The wedge-tailed shearwater (''Ardenna pacifica'') is a medium-large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. It is one of the shearwater species that is sometimes referred to as a muttonbird, like the sooty shearwater of New Zealand and ...

s, 80,000 sooty terns, 20,000 brown noddies, 5–10 Bulwer's petrels, and 10–15 red-tailed tropicbirds, and numerous Hawaiian monk seals. It is illegal to land on the islet without permission from the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Manana Islands of Hawaii Geography of Honolulu County, Hawaii Volcanoes of Oahu Hotspot volcanoes Tuff cones Quaternary volcanoes Quaternary Oceania