Nicolas Grevet  •  Photography

When hot lava is cooled quickly by the sea, the basaltic rock shatters and creates black sand. This is how the black-sand beaches in Hawaii are created, including Waiʻānapanapa State Park's popular black-sand beach on Maui: Pāʻiloa. Heavy rainfall has since turned much of the hardened ʻaʻa lava on the coast into dense foliage, and now the beach's bright green Naupaka shrubs set against the dark-black sand and deep-turquoise sea produce a landscape that dazzles visitors every day.