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| Looking into the crater of Haleakala |
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| Higher than Everest from base to summit |
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| A silversword, one of the rarest plants on the planet! |
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| Above the clouds |
The big volcano on Maui is Haleakala, at more than 10,000 ft high it is actually higher than Mount Everest if measured from the ocean floor which is 19,000 ft below. To be above the clouds is amazing, especially as you are not in a plane! It is quite difficult to walk fast as the air is much thinner which means there is not as much oxygen in it. Rare plants live at this altitude, we saw the silversword which grows for 50 years, blooms and then dies. It is pollinated by endigenous ants but these are being killed by ants from South America, imported accidentally. There were fewer than 50 of these plants left at one time but they are now protected. The crater of the volcano is huge, 7 miles by 3 miles and 3,000 ft deep! There are lots of little cones inside the crater from the last eruption in 1790. This is a dormant volcano which means that it is not active and likely to erupt in the near future - but it could still erupt at some time!!!
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