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Mauna Loa – active, partly within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.The island of Hawaiʻi is built from five separate shield volcanoes that erupted somewhat sequentially, one overlapping the other. Steam plume as Kīlauea red lava enters the ocean at three Waikupanaha and one Ki lava ocean entries. To the northwest of the island of Hawaii is the island of Maui, whose Haleakalā volcano is visible from Hawaii across the Alenuihaha Channel.
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The nearest landfall to the south is in the Line Islands. Ka Lae, the southernmost point in the 50 states of the United States, is on Hawaii. Measured from its sea floor base to its highest peak, Mauna Kea is the world's tallest mountain, taller than even Mount Everest, since the base of Mount Everest is above sea level. It has a land area of 4,028 square miles (10,430 km 2) comprising 62% of the Hawaiian Islands' land area. Īt its greatest dimension, the island is 93 miles (150 km) across. It is the highest percentage by any county in the United States. The county's land area comprises 62.7 percent of the state's land area. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 5,086 square miles (13,170 km 2), of which 4,028 square miles (10,430 km 2) is land and 1,058 square miles (2,740 km 2) (20.8%) is water. Geology and geography Īccording to the U.S. In 1822 the missionary William Ellis arrived and was one of a party that completed a tour of the island, descriptions of which were later published in his journal. Kamehameha united most of the Hawaiian islands under his rule in 1795, after several years of war, and gave the kingdom and the island chain the name of his native island. Hawaii was the home island of Paiʻea Kamehameha, later known as Kamehameha the Great. Cook was killed on the Big Island at Kealakekua Bay on 14 February 1779, in a melee which followed the theft of a ship's boat. Captain James Cook, the English explorer and navigator who was captain of the first European expedition that came upon the Hawaiian Islands, called it O-Why-hee (from Hawaiian) and the "Sandwich Islands" after his patron, the Earl of Sandwich. Other accounts attribute the name to the legendary realm of Hawaiki, a place from which some Polynesian people are said to have originated, the place where they transition to in the afterlife, or the realm of the gods and goddesses. Hawaii is said to have been named after Hawaiʻiloa, the legendary Polynesian navigator who first discovered it. James Kealoha Beach, "Carlsmith Beach Park", in Hilo