La Perouse Bay

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La Perouse Bay is located south of the town of Makena, Hawaii on State Highway 31. It was named for the French explorer who, in 1786, surveyed and mapped the prominent embayment near the southern cape of Maui opposite the island of Kaho'olawe. The bay is the site of Maui's most recent volcanic activity. The rounded peninsula that dominates the northern half of the bay and extends up the coast a short distance was formed about 900,000 years ago by an eruption of basaltic lava that originated in the southernmost landward expression of the Haleakala Southwest Rift Zone. A small string of cinder cones extending inland to the northeast marks the axis of the rift zone.