Scenery of Maui's Beaches & Coastlline.
gallery pages:  <<  <  23  24  25  26  27  28  >  >>
< 232 of 319 >
Looking back landward along Makaluapuna Point toward the main building of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Flemming State Beach. Clouds obsure the crest of the West Maui Mountains in the background. The boulder-strewn beach (right middle ground of photo) is covered with coral debris (many fragments have interesting shapes and coloration) and flotsam and jetsam washed ashore during storms and tidal high stands. The brush-covered slope (right middle ground of photo) conceals the remains of the more than 2,000 Hawaiians interred in the old burial grounds. Their mana is strong here and can be felt as well as seen, most strikingly in the unusual beauty of the landscape.
Makaluapuna Point looking northward toward Molokai in the hazy distance.
One of the "teeth" of The Dragon's Teeth at Makaluapuna Point, near Kapalua, west Maui. The nearly overturned surface feature of the old lava flow displays mineralized polygonal joint networks (cracks) and laterite concretions (cannonball-like structures inside the polygons), both of which are indicative of advanced chemical weathering at work.
Looking into the mouth of a lava tube being gradually eroded shoreward by wave action. This part of Makaluapuna Point is riddled with lava tubes; they thread their interwoven paths all through the lava flow, and at high tide they allow surging sea water from large waves breaking on the outer edges of the flow to penetrate deep into the rocks. The energy of the surging seawater cuts into and fractures the rock, often forcing its way upward to form blowholes where the water spouts noisily onto the bare top of the flow. I encountered one VERY eerie phenomena near where this photo was taken: a loud snarling, roaring exhalation of air forced upward by seawater through an unseen crack in the rock that sounded for all the world like the voice of a bull elephant seal! (My friend Mel Witt from up north island way said it was the voice of God speaking to me alone. Hmmm...)
Residual corestones (10-20 cm in diameter) formed by mineralization of cracks and joints in deeply-weathered trachyte lava. The Dragon's Teeth, Makaluapuna Point, near Kapalua, west Maui.
Residual corestones formed by mineralization of cracks and joints in deeply-weathered trachyte lava. The Dragon's Teeth, Makaluapuna Point, near Kapalua, west Maui.
Evidence of physical weathering at work on the trachyte lava of The Dragon's Teeth, at Makaluapuna Point near Kapalua, west Maui.
The Dragon's Teeth, at Makaluapuna Point near Kapalua, west Maui. Note the numerous cracks (known as "joints") and weathering pits on the surface of the old trachyte lava flow. The long promontory of rock protruding into the bay was a lava flow that ran halfway down the slopes of the West Maui Mountains caldera (located near the Needle at 'Iao valley). The old flow structure contains numerous large lava tubes below where this photo was taken; they served as conduits for the still-molten lava flowing within the rapidly cooling flow.
Weathered surfaces of a lava flow at the Dragon's Teeth, Makaluapuna Point, near Kapalua, west Maui. Physical weathering (in the form of wave action and precipitation) has caused "pitting" on the old flow surface and widened the joints and chill cracks.
Evidence of physical weathering at work on the trachyte lava of The Dragon's Teeth, at Makaluapuna Point near Kapalua, west Maui.
Evidence of physical weathering at work on the trachyte lava of The Dragon's Teeth, at Makaluapuna Point near Kapalua, west Maui.
Evidence of physical weathering at work on the trachyte lava of The Dragon's Teeth, at Makaluapuna Point near Kapalua, west Maui.
gallery pages:  <<  <  23  24  25  26  27  28  >  >>
< 232 of 319 >