(Hawaii) The story behind this trend in Social Media today
03-10-2026
I’ll look up what’s circulating about Hawaii on social media today and summarize the story behind it.The collapse of a well-known coastal landmark looks like the main item driving the Hawaii conversation today. I’m checking the details behind it.Hawaii is circulating on social media today mainly because of the collapse of the Hōlei Sea Arch, a long-standing landmark in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island.The arch was a natural bridge of basalt, about 90 feet high, carved by Pacific waves into a cliff of lava roughly 550 years old. It stood at the end of the Chain of Craters Road on the park’s remote southern coast and was a familiar stop for visitors. Park officials had long described it as temporary. Earthquakes tied to the 2018 Kīlauea eruption and summit collapse cracked the nearby cliffs. In January 2020, further instability forced the original viewing area to close; a safer overlook opened farther back later that year. Later in 2020, heavy surf from Tropical Storm Darby broke a chunk off the lower part of the arch, and the park warned that a full collapse could come without much notice.The arch was still standing on Wednesday, September 23. By Sunday night, September 27, it was gone. The exact moment is unknown. The park was temporarily closed around then for Tropical Storm (later Hurricane) Nolo, which passed south of the Big Island with heavy rain and strong winds as part of a busy stretch of Pacific storms. Claims that the arch had fallen started spreading after the park reopened. The National Park Service confirmed the collapse on October 1, and the news spread widely on October 2, often with before-and-after photos and short “RIP” posts from the Department of the Interior and others.Officials are telling people to stay out of closed areas and away from the cliff edges. The coast drops straight into the ocean, the rock is unstable, and photos have already shown people entering restricted spots near where the arch stood. The park has said that as this coastline slowly erodes inland, other arches are likely to form even as this one is gone. Separate posts today have also noted a swarm of earthquakes near Kīlauea’s summit that prompted additional park closures, which has added to the Hawaii conversation, but the sea arch is the story driving most of the attention.