Hawaii (The “Big Island”)

The Island of Hawaii, often called "the Big Island", is the largest island in the chain. Since the entire chain is also named Hawaii the term "Big Island" also specifies that someone is referring to the particular island instead of the entire archipelago. Unique features of interest to tourism include: active volcanoes on its southeastern coast, two of the world's largest mountains (Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa), and the resort area of Kona.

The Big Island is famous for its volcanoes. Kīlauea, the most active, has been erupting almost continuously for more than two decades.

At the coast where the lava meets the ocean, one can sometimes see billows of white steam rising from off the shoreline. At night, the lava lights up the steam to give an orange glow. When the molten lava makes contact with the ocean, the sea water turns into steam, and the sudden cooling of the lava causes the newly formed lava rocks to explode and crack into small pieces. The broken up lava is further ground into black sands along the shore by the ocean waves. Black sand beaches are common on the Big Island.

Hawaii's Big Island Categories