K

Kīpuka (kee-POO-kah)

In a landscape transformed by lava, a kīpuka is a place where older land and life remain — an island of continuity surrounded by change.

Literal meaning: an area of older land surrounded by a more recent lava flow; an island or patch of vegetation within a lava flow

Cultural meaning:
In Hawaiʻi, kīpuka most commonly describes an area of land that has been surrounded, but not covered, by a newer lava flow. These pockets of older land may preserve established soil, forests, native plants, animals, and other forms of life while the landscape around them begins anew.

Because a kīpuka can shelter ecosystems that survived a lava flow, it can serve as an important refuge and source of renewal. Plants and animals preserved within a kīpuka may eventually spread into the younger landscape surrounding it, helping life return to the new lava.

The word also carries a powerful sense of continuity amid change — a place where life persists while the world around it is transformed. Here on Hawaiʻi Island, kīpuka are living reminders of the relationship between destruction, survival, and regeneration that continually shapes the ʻāina.