This is the crater at the top of Mt. Haleakala, on the island of Maui. Haleakala is a shield volcano, and that portion of it which rises above sea level makes up about 3/4 of the island of Maui. Native Hawaiians used the name Haleakalā, which means "House of the Sun", to refer only to this part of the mountain, and it was so named because from the more-inhabited west side of the island, the Sun appeared to rise out of this summit. In Hawaiian mythology, this was also the home of demigod Māui's family. From here, Maui's grandmother helped him capture the Sun and force it to travel across the sky more slowly, to give the people a longer day.
The crater is more than 7 miles, 2 miles wide and 2,600 feet deep. The volcano looks as if it is extinct, but its is actually just dormant. Depending upon whose analysis you trust, its last eruption occurred sometime around 1790 (between the voyages of La Perouse and Vancouver) or sometime in the 1600s.
There are a few plants growing out of the soil, but it looks mostly barren, and when I saw the pictures coming back from the Phoenix Mars Lander recently, I thought they looked a lot like the top of Haleakalā.
A year ago today, I woke up in a hospital bed in the worst pain I'd ever experienced in my life. When I got ready to go home a dozen hours later, the first thing I asked my surgeon was "will I be able to take my trip to Maui this week?" You can see why.
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