Interior Department Mourns Loss Of Iconic American Landmark

Interesting department of the interior, hawaii, national parks admin October 5, 2026 0 Comments

Interior Department Mourns Loss Of Iconic American Landmark

A 90-foot sea arch that stood for more than five centuries on Hawai’i’s Big Island has toppled into the Pacific Ocean.

The Hōlei Sea Arch stood intact on Sept. 23, according to a news release from Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. By the night of Sept. 27 it was gone. The exact time of the collapse remains unknown.

The U.S. Department of the Interior acknowledged the loss on X with a short message that read “Yes, it’s true. RIP Hōlei Sea Arch,” according to the agency’s post. (RELATED: Person Dead After Entering Restricted Area Of Kilauea At Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park)

Ancient lava flows built the arch roughly 550 years ago through “differential erosion,” a process driven by the varying hardness of lava layers, according to the park service. The formation stood at the end of Chain of Craters Road. Park literature had long described it as temporary, a feature bound to crumble as the cliff line creeps inland.

The cliffs around the arch had shown weakness for years, according to the park’s news release. Seismic shaking from the 2018 Kīlauea eruption had already damaged the nearby rock. The park shut the original overlook in Jan. 2020 after fresh cracks opened. A replacement overlook set back from the edge opened that March. Waves from Tropical Storm Darby tore a chunk from the arch’s base later that year. The park warned afterward that the arch could collapse completely at any time, according to Hawaii Public Radio.

The arch disappeared during a stormy hurricane season, falling while the park sat closed for the storm Nolo, according to Fox Weather. The park service has not linked the collapse to any single storm, Beat of Hawaii reported.

Online images captured people slipping past the closure to reach the spot, exposing themselves and rescuers to deadly falls into the surf, according to the park service. Officials asked the public to keep off the unstable edges, which can crumble without warning.