Hawaii, US

Papakōlea Beach

Water Bodyocean
CountryUS
RegionHawaii

Getting There

Nearest CityHawaiian Ocean View19.3 km
Airport (KOA)Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keāhole98.6 km

Safety & Conditions

Shark Incidents0recorded

Facilities

✗ Wheelchair Accessible

Sand & Geology

green

Papakolea is one of only four green-sand beaches on Earth. The color comes from olivine crystals — a silicate of iron and magnesium — eroded out of the nearby Puu Mahana cinder cone. Olivine is denser than the surrounding basaltic ash, so it accumulates here instead of being washed out to sea.

Predicted regional compositionunknown

Modelled from GloPrSM v1.0.0 (IJ_QFL). Calibrated on river sand, not measured beach samples — treat as a regional signal, not a sand assay.

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Explore Papakōlea Beach

Travel

Papakōlea Beach offers one of Hawaii's most distinctive geological experiences: a green sand beach formed from olivine crystals exposed by 49,000 years of erosion from the Puʻu Mah...

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Papakōlea Beach18.9357, -155.6463