The island of Maui ( in English, in Hawaiian) is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at 727.2 square miles (1883.5 km²) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest island in Maui County. Three other islands, Lāna i, Kaho olawe, and Moloka i, also belong to Maui County. Together, the four islands are known as Maui Nui. In 2000, Maui had a population of 117,644, the third-most populous of the Hawaiian islands, behind that of O ahu and Hawai i. Kahului is the largest town on the island with a population of 20,146.

Name

Native Hawaiian tradition gives the origin of the island's name in the legend of Hawai iloa, the Polynesian navigator attributed with discovery of the Hawaiian Islands. The story relates how he named the island of Maui after his son who in turn was named for the demigod Māui. The Island of Maui is also called the "Valley Isle" for the large fertile isthmus between its two volcanoes. Fact: date=April 2009

Geology and topography

Maui's wide variety of landscapes have resulted from a unique combination of geology, topography, and climate. Each volcanic cone in the chain of the Hawaiian Islands is built of dark, iron-rich/quartz-poor rocks, which poured out of thousands of vents as highly fluid lava, over a period of millions of years. Several of the volcanoes were close enough to each other that lava flows on their flanks overlapped one another, causing several volcanoes to merge into a single island. Maui is such a "volcanic doublet", formed from two shield volcanoes that overlapped one another to form an isthmus between them.

The older, western volcano has been eroded considerably and is cut by numerous drainages, forming the peaks of the West Maui Mountains (in Hawaiian Mauna Kahalawai). Pu u Kukui is the highest of the peaks at . The larger, younger volcano to the east, Haleakalā, rises to more than above sea level, but measures from seafloor to summit.

The last eruption (originating in Haleakalā's Southwest Rift Zone) occurred around 1790; two of the resulting lava flows are located (1) at Cape Kīna u between Āhihi Bay and La Perouse Bay on the southwest shore of East Maui, and (2) at Makaluapuna Point on Honokahua Bay on the northwest shore of West Maui. Although considered to be dormant by volcanologists, Haleakalā is certainly capable of further eruptions.

The island of Maui is part of a much larger volcanic island, Maui Nui that is joined during periods of low sea level, including as recently as 20,000 years ago. Lāna i, Kaho olawe, and Moloka i, like Maui, are remnants of Maui Nui.