One of the most unusual beaches in the world, Mahana Beach, known as Green Sand Beach, is located at South Point, Ka Lae, the southernmost point of the United States. Sacred to the Hawaiians, South Point peninsula is believed to be filled with a sense of "mana" or power.

 

The southernmost beach in the United Sates, Green Sand Beach is composed of greenish semi-precious stone known as olivine that is mixed with black sand.Olivine is a green mineral deposited along the coast by the volcano.

 

Primarily located on the slopes of Mauna Loa, the world's largest and most massive active volcano on the southwestern part of the island, the beach was formed by the erosion and concentration of olivine crystals derived from the surrounding volcanic cone Pu'u o Mahana. As ocean waves crashed against the coast they wore away at the cone and made a small bay along the coast. The waves also removed the lighter grains of sand, made of volcanic ash, leaving the denser olivine crystals behind to form the beach.

 

 This rare green sand is known to be prized by collectors.