Ko‘olau Range is a name given to the fragmented remnant of the eastern or windward shield volcano of the Hawaiian island of O‘ahu. It is not a mountain range in the normal sense, because it was formed as a single mountain called Ko‘olau Volcano (ko‘olau means "windward" in Hawaiian). What remains of Ko‘olau is the western half of the original volcano that was destroyed in prehistoric times when the entire eastern half—including much of the summit caldera—slid cataclysmically into the Pacific Ocean. Remains of this ancient volcano lie as massive fragments strewn nearly 100 miles over the ocean floor to the northeast of O‘ahu. The modern Ko‘olau mountain forms O‘ahu's windward coast and rises behind the leeward coast city of Honolulu — on its leeward slopes and valleys are located most of Honolulu's residential neighborhoods.

The volcano is thought to have first erupted on the ocean floor more than 2.5 million years ago. It eventually reached sea level and continued to grow in elevation until about 1.7 million years ago, when the volcano became dormant. The volcano remained dormant for hundreds of thousands of years, during which time erosion ate away at the initially smooth slopes of the shield-shaped mountain; and the entire mass subsided considerably. The highest elevation perhaps exceeded 3000 m (10,000 ft), although today it is only 960 m (3149 ft; Pu‘u Konahuanui).

After hundreds of thousands of years of dormancy, Ko‘olau volcano began to erupt again. Some thirty eruptions over the past 500,000 years or so have created many of the landmarks around eastern O‘ahu, such as Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, Koko Head, Punchbowl Crater, Tantalus, and Āliapa‘akai. Geologists do not always agree on the dates of these more recent eruptions, some dating them to around 32,000 years ago, others to as recently as 10,000 years ago. Geologists believe that there is at least a remote possibility that Ko‘olau volcano will erupt again.

See also

• Evolution of Hawaiian volcanoes