Just a few miles northeast of the southernmost point in all U.S. states, the “green sand” beach of Papakolea is one of only four in the world. Its cliffs of loosely cemented, tuffaceous sandstone were layered by multiple events of Mauna Loa rift eruptions, and wind and water deposits of pyroclastic sediment over the last 10,000 years. Crystals of olivine, the mineral causing the greenish tint in some of the beach sand, are heavier than the ash that is swept out to sea, and gets concentrated more in the sand than in the cliffs. This was a fine place to which to hike on Christmas Day.
7 SSW Discovery Harbor HI (25 Dec 17) Looking SE
18.9363, -155.646