<P> Papakōlea Beach (also known as Green Sand Beach or Mahana Beach) is a green sand beach located near South Point, in the Ka ʻū district of the island of Hawai ʻi . One of only four green sand beaches in the world, the others being Talofofo Beach, Guam; Punta Cormorant on Floreana Island in the Galapagos Islands; and Hornindalsvatnet, Norway . It gets its distinctive coloring from olivine sand eroded out of the enclosing volcanic cone (tuff ring). </P> <P> Papakōlea Beach is located in a bay half circled by Pu ʻu Mahana, a tuff ring formed over 49,000 years ago and associated with the southwest rift of Mauna Loa . Unlike cinder cones, tuff rings consist mostly of volcanic ash produced by violent interactions of magma with groundwater (Diamond Head, on the Island of Oahu, is another example of a tuff ring). Since its last eruption, the tuff ring has partially collapsed and been partially eroded by the ocean . The beach is sometimes named after the tuff ring, and sometimes after the area of land called Papakōlea, which comes from papa kōlea, which means plover flats in the Hawaiian language . Papakōlea is the area near the crater where Pacific golden plovers (Pluvialis fulva) are sometimes seen in winter . </P>

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