Iconic Hawaiʻi sea arch collapses into Pacific Ocean

The Hōlei Sea Arch at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park has collapsed into the Pacific Ocean, the National Park Service confirmed on October 1.

The arch was still standing on Wednesday, September 23, but had collapsed by Sunday night, September 27. The exact time of the collapse is unknown. The park service said it could have happened while the park was temporarily closed during Tropical Storm Nolo; it has not named a cause.

About 90 feet (27 metres) high, the arch stood near the end of Chain of Craters Road. It was cut into the cliff of a lava flow from about 550 years ago, where layers of rock of different hardness wore away at different rates. Hōlei is the name of a small plant found only in Hawaiʻi, the park service notes.

The coastline around it had been unstable for years. Earthquakes during Kīlauea's 2018 eruption and summit collapse damaged the cliffs near the arch. In January 2020, new cracks and instability led the park to close the original viewing area, and a safer viewpoint farther from the cliff edge opened that March.

Sea arches are passing features of Hawaiʻi's changing coastline: the same waves that carve openings into volcanic cliffs keep wearing them down until the rock bridge falls.

Park officials are urging visitors to stay back from unstable coastal cliff edges, which can collapse without warning. Photos on social media show people entering the closed area near where the arch once stood, the park service said, putting themselves and first responders at great risk of falling and drowning.