Google Maps’ red pin for the Hōlei Sea Arch, a sturdy 90-foot arch formed by 550-year-old lava flows and the prolonged carving of the salty Pacific, now reads: “Permanently Closed.”
On Thursday, the National Park Service said the scenic arch in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island collapsed between Sept. 23 and Sunday, around the time a tropical cyclone sent significant swells to the coast.
“The exact time of the collapse is unknown and may have occurred when the park was temporarily closed during Tropical Storm Nolo,” the park service said in a statement.
The park service lamented the collapse of the natural feature, which it said was likely rooted in lava flows about half a millennium ago and then slowly shaped by the reduction of rough seas.
He also said some wanting to see what remains of the Hōlei Sea Arch have come too close to the edge of the surrounding cliffs, as seen on social media.
The park service warned visitors to keep a safe distance from the eroding shoreline, where they could put “themselves and first responders at great risk of falling and drowning off the rough, wave-swept coastline,” it said.
“Visitors are advised to stay away from unstable edges of coastal cliffs that slope vertically into the ocean and present a serious fall hazard,” the document states.
The collapse was a long time coming, the park service said, with Kīlauea’s 2018 eruption shaking the ground enough to damage the cliffs near the arch.
New cracks on the feature and its surroundings in early 2020 prompted Hawaii Volcanoes National Park officials to move the Hōlei Marine Arch viewing area away from the Earth’s End, the park service said.
“Later that year, massive waves from Tropical Storm Darby broke off a piece of rock from the lower portion of the arch,” it said.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the arch is the product of “differential ocean wave erosion,” whereby the sea first works to remove material along cracks and weaker sections of the basalt rock.
“Every day the ocean crashes against the pillar of the ark, eroding it a little more,” he said in his entry for the ark. “One day, that won’t be the case anymore. »
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