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Feb 18, 2011

Wonder World - Maui Island, Hawaii

Sunrise at Haleakala, Maui Island, Hawaii

The island of Maui (pronounced /ˈmaʊ.iː/ in English, [ˈmɐuwi] in Hawaiian) is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at 727.2 square miles (1883.5 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, and Molokaʻi. In 2000, Maui had a population of 117,644, third-most populous of the Hawaiian islands, behind that of Oʻahu and Hawaiʻi. Kahului is the largest town on the island with a population of 20,146. Wailuku is the seat of Maui County. Other significant towns include Kīhei, Lahaina,Makawao, Pāʻia, Kula, Haʻikū, Hāna, Kāʻanapali, Wailea, Makena, and Kapalua.





Maui's wide variety of landscapes resulted from a unique combination of geology, topography, and climate. Each volcanic cone in the chain of the Hawaiian Islands is built of dark, iron-rich/quartz-poor rocks, which poured out of thousands of vents as highly fluid lava, over a period of millions of years. Several of the volcanoes were close enough to each other that lava flows on their flanks overlapped one another, merging into a single island. Maui is such a "volcanic doublet", formed from two shield volcanoes that overlapped one another to form an isthmus between them.












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