Lolo Na'ia, Hawaii
5.12km x 5.12km Terrain
5m Ground Resolution
The Hawaiian Islands are at the southeastern end of a chain of volcanoes that began to form more than 70 million years ago. Many of these volcanoes formed islands that have subsided and eroded beneath sea level, and some of the old volcanoes probably never reached sea level. Each Hawaiian island is made of one or more volcanoes, which first erupted on the sea floor and only emerged above the ocean's surface after countless eruptions.
The islands owe their existence to a "hot spot" in the Earth's mantle that has changed location only slightly over the past 70 million years. This hot spot is located beneath the southeastern part of Hawaii.
Countless eruptions of lava fed by the hot spot built volcanoes that eventually grew above sea level to form islands. But the volcanoes didn't continue to erupt, because the seafloor on which they were built was continually moving northwestward across the hot spot at a rate of 7-9 cm per year. Eventually each volcano was torn away from the hot spot and carried northwestward, just as a conveyor belt moves material from one location to another. Such is the fate for the active volcanoes on the Big Island, though they will be replaced by new volcanoes, of which Lo`ihi is the newest and youngest...
Lolo Nai'a, on the other hand, is one of the oldest and most northwestward of the Hawaiian volcanic island chain. A small volcanic peak, at some point in the distant past this island literally "blew it's top", and the collapsed crater remnant, now much eroded, forms a typical volcanic archipelago grouping.
Heightmap 2D
The name Lolo Nai'a means "Crazy Dolphin" in Hawaiian, and is thought to derive from a traditional story about a dolphin who jumped over the moon...
Heightmap 3D
A fairly simple geology for this synthetic terrain... a "collapsed" volcanic caldera remnant with erosion on the exposed land surfaces plus some beach sand aggregation in suitable shallow areas. A simple mix of Berghoff's superb vegetation placed via World Tools adds instant south sea islands atmosphere to this little terrain...
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