VOLCANIC KAUA’I

RED DIRT. There is great significance to the deep, orange hues that brightly paint the landscape throughout Kaua’i.

Once active volcanoes, the islands in Hawai’i are primarily composed of basalt rock originating from hardened lava flows. The basalt rock is very rich in iron minerals. With extreme weathering over millions of years, the iron has oxidized, or rusted, resulting in the red-colored dirt found everywhere in the islands. Red dirt is soil of a clayey consistency, and is actually quite infertile.

The Hawaiian Island archipelago consists of 132 islands, atolls, reefs, shallow banks, shoals, and seamounts, and spans a total length of sixteen-hundred miles. The continuous northwestward movement of the Pacific Tectonic Plate across the fixed Hawaiian Magmatic Hot Spot is responsible for the formation of the entire Hawaiian Island chain. Incredibly, islands have been forming from this fixed hot spot for over 80 million years.

Kaua’i is the northernmost island of the eight, main Hawaiian islands, but the entire island chain extends much further: from The Big Island of Hawai’i in the west, to Midway and Kure in the east. Initially, Kaua’i was located where the Big Island of Hawai’i is today. As you move from west to east, the islands become younger. For example, the Big Island of Hawai’i is the youngest island in the Hawaiian Island chain, and is still quite volcanically active. To the southeast of it lies Lo’ihi Seamount, Hawai’i’s newest submarine volcano which is completely underwater at this time. Lo’ihi could become Hawaii’s newest island when it breaks the surface of the ocean some day.

Kaua’i is the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands, but just exactly how old is Kaua’i? Geologists have concluded that the island is at least 5.1 million years old, with chemical testing indicating that Kaua’i contains rocks between 5.6 to 3.8 million years old.

k A u A i ’ s rich volc A nic history is the re A son for the deep , or A nge hues th A t brightly p A int the hills A nd v A lleys

A cross the isl A nd . t he burnt or A nge color of this eroded cliff is c A used by the high content of iron oxide in the soil . k A u A ’ i h A s experienced intense we A thering over millions of ye A rs , A nd the red cl A y soil is A direct result of A n extremely wet A nd windy clim A te .