Qualla: Kamaehuakanaloa Seamount

Kamaehuakanaloa Seamount: Introduction

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NOAA, Public domain. Somewhere between 10,000 and 100,000 years from now, a new Hawaiian island will emerge from the Pacific. Its summit already rises more than three thousand meters above the seafloor, making it taller than Mount St. Helens was before the catastrophic 1980 eruption. But you cannot see it. Kamaehuakanaloa Seamount -- the "glowing child of Kanaloa," named for the Hawaiian god of the ocean -- lies entirely beneath the waves, about 30 miles off the southeast coast of the Big Island. It is the youngest volcano in the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain, and the only one still in the deep submarine preshield stage of development.

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Image: NOAA | Public domain

Kamaehuakanaloa Seamount: A Volcano Hiding in Plain Sight

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NOAA, Public domain. Until 1970, scientists assumed Kamaehuakanaloa was a dead seamount, an ancient volcanic remnant dragged to its current position by millions of years of seafloor spreading. Charts labeled it "older volcanic feature." Then a series of earthquakes off Hawaii's coast prompted investi...

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Image: NOAA | Public domain

Kamaehuakanaloa Seamount: The Summer the Summit Collapsed

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NOAA, Public domain. In the summer of 1996, Kamaehuakanaloa announced itself to the scientific world with the most energetic earthquake swarm in recorded Hawaiian history: 4,070 earthquakes shook the seamount. The National Science Foundation scrambled a rapid-response cruise, led by University of Haw...

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Image: NOAA | Public domain

Kamaehuakanaloa Seamount: Life at the Vents

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NOAA, Public domain. Around the hydrothermal vents that dot Kamaehuakanaloa's summit, an unusual ecosystem thrives. The vent fluids run rich in iron but low in sulfide -- conditions that favor iron-oxidizing bacteria over the sulfur-dependent organisms found at most deep-sea vents. Among these specia...

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Image: NOAA | Public domain

Kamaehuakanaloa Seamount: A Name Restored

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NOAA, Public domain. From 1955 to 2021, the seamount was called Loihi, the Hawaiian word for "long," describing its elongated shape. In 2021, the Hawaii Board on Geographic Names assigned a more culturally significant name: Kamaehuakanaloa, meaning "glowing child of Kanaloa." Researchers at the Bisho...

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Image: NOAA | Public domain