The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at 727.2 square miles (1883.5 km2) and is the United States' 17th largest island. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lanai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2000, Maui had a population of 117,644, third-most populous of the Hawaiian islands, behind that of Oahu and Hawaii. Kahului is the largest town on the island with a population of 20,146.[4] Wailuku is the seat of Maui County.


Maui's wide variety of landscapes 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 ...