A man holds a handful of wet green sand he grabbed up from remote Papakōlea Beach near the southern tip of the Big Island of Hawaii in Hawaii, USA. The rare green sand is created by fragmented crystals of olivine, a mineral from a lava cinder cone that formed during an eruption of the Mauna Loa volcano about 49,000 years ago. Papakōlea Beach, also known as Mahana Beach, is more commonly called Green Sand Beach and is one of just four beaches in the world that appear green because of the large amount of dense glassy olivine crystals that make up most of the sand.
A man holds a handful of wet green sand he grabbed up from remote Papakōlea Beach near the southern tip of the Big Island of Hawaii in Hawaii, USA. The rare green sand is created by fragmented crystals of olivine, a mineral from a lava cinder cone that formed during an eruption of the Mauna Loa volcano about 49,000 years ago. Papakōlea Beach, also known as Mahana Beach, is more commonly called Green Sand Beach and is one of just four beaches in the world that appear green because of the large amount of dense glassy olivine crystals that make up most of the sand.
Size: 3130px × 4800px
Location: Papakōlea Green Sand Beach, near South Point, Big Island of Hawaii, Hawaii, USA
Photo credit: © Michele and Tom Grimm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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