A blowhole on Kauai

Blowholes are this really cool phenomenon formed by empty lava tubes that have one end near the water and the other end facing upward. An incoming wave forces itself in the tube on the water side and the resulting pressure spots out the top – not unlike the blowhole of a whale.

Some folks take the extremely dangerous – and many times deadly (so please don’t do this!) of sitting somewhere inside the blowhole and getting blown out by the pressure.

Sounds like fun, until you realize sometimes they fall into that hole a little too deep, can’t get out, and then get smashed to their deaths by an incoming wave.

Sorry for that bit of morbidity and I’m sharing it so you don’t get tempted to try this foolish act on your next visit. Fun to watch – but extremely dangerous to interact with.

IMG_0979 by Ben Schmitt is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0. Image may have been resized or cropped from original.

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