Qualla: Molokini https://qualla.com/molokini en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:09 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/8/e/8/t/molokini-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Molokini https://qualla.com/molokini Molokini: Introduction https://qualla.com/molokini/ Photo credit Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0. From a boat, Molokini looks like a jaw rising from the sea. Half a mouth, teeth of basalt, the rest swallowed long ago by the Pacific. Hawaiian legend offers a different anatomy: the fire goddess Pele, furious with jealousy, cut a beautiful woman in two and turned her to stone. The crescent that remains is Molokini. The woman's severed head became Pu'u Olai, the cinder cone on the shore at Makena Beach, still gazing back at her own body across two and a half miles of channel. Whether you believe the geology or the myth, the shape is extraordinary -- a nearly perfect half-circle of volcanic rock, 23 acres of uninhabited islet rising 161 feet above the waterline, sheltering one of Hawaii's richest underwater ecosystems inside its concave embrace.

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Image: Forest & Kim Starr | CC BY 3.0

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/e/8/t/molokini-wp/8e8t-molokini-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Molokini: 230,000 Years in the Making https://qualla.com/molokini/ Photo credit Bossfrog, CC BY-SA 4.0. Molokini erupted approximately 230,000 years ago, one of seven Pleistocene-era volcanoes that together formed Maui Nui, the prehistoric superisland that once connected Maui, Molokai, Lanai, and Kahoolawe before rising seas separated them. What remains above water is a partial tuf...

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Image: Bossfrog | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/e/8/t/molokini-wp/8e8t-molokini-230-000-years-in-the-making.mp3 0:06 2 full Molokini: Target Practice and Black Coral https://qualla.com/molokini/ Photo credit Tom Walsh, CC BY-SA 3.0. Molokini's crescent profile, which from certain angles resembles a battleship's silhouette, attracted the wrong kind of attention during World War II. The U.S. Navy used the islet for target practice, pounding its slopes with ordnance. The damage lingered for decades. In 1975 and...

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Image: Tom Walsh | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/e/8/t/molokini-wp/8e8t-molokini-target-practice-and-black-coral.mp3 0:06 3 full Molokini: A Glass-Bottomed Nursery https://qualla.com/molokini/ Photo credit OpenStreetMap contributors, CC BY-SA 2.0. Inside the crescent, protected from the open channel's powerful currents, the reef has rebuilt itself into one of Maui's premier dive and snorkel destinations. Water clarity can reach 150 feet on calm mornings, revealing a seafloor that mixes sand patches, basalt boulders, and li...

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Image: OpenStreetMap contributors | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/e/8/t/molokini-wp/8e8t-molokini-a-glass-bottomed-nursery.mp3 0:06 4 full Molokini: The View from Above https://qualla.com/molokini/ Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. Seen from the air, Molokini resolves into its truest shape: a thin arc of dark rock enclosing a pool of turquoise water, set against the deep indigo of the Alalakeiki Channel. The contrast is almost artificial in its perfection. Inside the crescent, the water shades from pale aqu...

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Image: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided | Public domain

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/e/8/t/molokini-wp/8e8t-molokini-the-view-from-above.mp3 0:06 5 full