Hawaii’s centuries-old sea ark collapses into the Pacific after a series of violent storms | Hawaii

A famous, centuries-old sea arch on Hawaii’s remote and rugged coastline has collapsed into the Pacific Ocean, the National Park Service confirmed Friday, following a series of severe storms in the region in recent weeks.

The beloved landmark, the Hōlei Sea Arch, has stood approximately 90 feet high for more than half a millennium in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, located on the spectacular south coast of the Big Island. It formed naturally about 550 years ago due to differential erosion caused by ocean waves.

The exact time of the collapse is unknown. The National Park Service (NPS) said the arch was still standing on Wednesday, September 23, when the park was temporarily closed during Tropical Storm Nolo, but had collapsed by Sunday evening, September 27.

“The arch formed in ancient lava flows by removing rocks along cracks and weaker rocks,” the U.S. Geological Survey said in a description of the arch in 2014. “It won’t be there forever. Every day the ocean crashes against the pillar of the arch, eroding it further. One day it will be gone.”

Indeed, the cliffs on either side of the sea arch had been showing signs of instability for years due to tropical systems and volcanic activity, the NPS said, meaning the collapse of the arch was long overdue.

Earthquakes during Kīlauea’s 2018 volcanic eruption and summit collapse damaged the cliffs around the arch. Then, in January 2020, new cracks and instabilities prompted the park to close the original viewing area and open a safer one, farther from the cliff’s edge, three months later. Later that year, huge waves from Tropical Storm Darby broke a piece of rock from the lower part of the arch.

The Hawaiian Islands have seen an unusually high number of severe storms this year, with storm activity in the Pacific above average during what is already the peak of hurricane season. Experts say this trend is consistent with El Niño years, when the Pacific often experiences more tropical storms and hurricanes.

Nolo, which quickly strengthened into a hurricane on September 24 – prompting the closure of Volcanoes National Park – was the third major storm to devastate the Hawaiian Islands in recent months. Residents were still recovering from Hurricanes Lala in August and Lowell in early September, which flooded homes and roads, toppled trees and caused power outages, when Nolo then hit the islands with heavy rain and high surf.

Forecasters have warned there is a high likelihood that this “supercharged” El Niño will reach historic intensity, with its storm-strengthening effects compounded by wider global overheating caused by the burning of fossil fuels.