Punaluu bay lava coast, Hawaii 1980

Punaluu Bay, on the southeastern coast of the Big Island of Hawaii, has a famous black-sand beach formed when molten lava reached the ocean, cooled rapidly and exploded into tiny black fragments that make up the black sand. Once the site of a major traditional Hawaiian settlement, and then a sugar port, Punaluu is now a popular tourist spot and is a refuge for green sea turtles and hawksbill turtles. The Bay waters are fed by a freshwater spring which makes the water cold. This image shows the western part of the bay where the lava flow reached the sea but little black sand has formed.