kipuka

[kee-poo-kah]

noun

1. (in Hawaii) a tract of land surrounded by recent lava flows.

Word History and Origins

Origin of kipuka¹

From the Hawaiian word kīpuka

Example Sentences

Similar work happens Wednesdays and Thursdays at Kipuka Olowalu, south of Lahaina.

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Carrie Fischer, 59, says she and her husband Harald are happy to stay in their largely unscathed home in the new kipuka and she isn’t worried about another eruption.

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Clinton and his neighbors now occupy what Hawaiians call a “kipuka,” an area of land surrounded by a now-hardened lava flow.

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When goslings are old enough to fly, the Hakalau and country club geese leave their respective home bases and meet up at Kipuka Ainahou off Saddle Road.

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If I continued following this road the next day, I thought, I would reach El Malpais’s largest kipuka, an islandlike ecosystem surrounded but untouched by the lava flows — called Hole-in-the-Wall.

Read more on New York Times