r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/PeacockPankh • 5h ago
Image Aerial view of Diamond Head, a 500,000-year-old volcanic tuff cone located on the island of O'ahu in Hawaii
8.4k
u/manofth3match 5h ago
This is not a dormant volcano. It’s dead. The hotspot that fueled it is no longer under it. The plate shifted over time and now the activity is on the big island of Hawaii.
This is also not a house. It the visitors center for a state park.
The ignorance showing up in this thread already is painful.
2.5k
u/Asher_Tye 5h ago
Oh thank you. I immediately wondered what super-villain was building his lair inside a volcano.
61
502
u/Little_View_6659 5h ago
Mark Zuckerberg.😂/s
143
u/Micycle08 5h ago
His compound is on Kauai, not Oahu.
46
u/Only_game_in_town 5h ago
Larry Ellison then?
54
u/Micycle08 5h ago
I think Larry owns an entire island off Maui? Poor zuck only has a couple hundred acres…
→ More replies (2)57
u/DrHarrisonLawrence 4h ago
Larry owns “98% of Lanai” according to Google
7
→ More replies (4)18
u/Micycle08 4h ago
Don’t worry, I’m sure he’s working on acquiring the other 2%
57
u/comics0026 4h ago
Nah, I bet that 2% is government run stuff, cause why the fuck would he want to pay for his own water treatment plant?
13
u/Nice_Firm_Handsnake 4h ago
I bet it's the airport and all the land it uses that Ellison doesn't own.
→ More replies (0)15
u/techdevjp 3h ago
Larry Ellison is a massive a-hole, sort of an a-hole among a-holes type of guy. (Apparently his son who now runs Paramount is similar, unfortunately.)
That said... Lanai has a long & not very good history of private ownership. Ellison, as big an a-hole as he is, has actually been a pretty good steward of the island and has invested a lot of money in infrastructure.
Even a busted clock is right twice a day, I guess.
→ More replies (0)13
u/zkfc020 4h ago
The other 2% is the village of his workers. They all work on his compound
11
u/Available_Leather_10 4h ago
And the two Four Seasons hotels on Lana’i.
Yes, Larry owns those, too, but they aren’t his compound.
4
→ More replies (5)9
2
18
u/xethu 5h ago
It would be a pretty sweet place to live minus the commute to get out everyday
7
→ More replies (2)2
11
5
u/SpriggedParsley357 4h ago
If it were a supervillain's lair, it'd be covered with a retractable roof decorated to look like water that would open up to let out a helicopter or a flurry of ICBMs. Geez, didn't you read your Supervillain Handbook??? 🤣
5
u/beardofjustice 4h ago
LOL! I opened this thread specifically with the question 'thats not someone's house is it?'
→ More replies (16)3
100
u/ProneToAnalFissures 5h ago
The hotspot that fueled it is no longer under it. The plate shifted over time and now the activity is on the big island of Hawaii.
You can even see the line of islands where the crust has moved over the hot mantle plume beneath its really cool
11
u/window-sil 3h ago
Bill Nye (of the science guys) actually has a nice visual demonstration of this, which is worth checking out, honestly: https://youtu.be/qhn_DM45U8s?si=uN_QP-MleghHllfu&t=234
→ More replies (1)16
u/DontEatThatTaco 4h ago
Fake news, my conservative christian neighbor said that's the sign of a watchmaker.
3
u/ArcticVulpe 1h ago
One of my favorite details in Futurama is if you've ever seen the episode where they get deserted on an island. The island is the one that is currently forming off the coast of the Big Island due to the hot spot being under there.
→ More replies (1)4
u/CitizenBacon 2h ago
One of my favorite things to do on occasion is to go on Google Earth and follow that line of islands back millions of years - that same hot spot created Midway and many other islands that once were quite similar to the Hawaiian islands but have since eroded/subsided back into the sea.
15
170
u/agate_ 4h ago
This image has also been heavily edited or AI-ified. The real thing is never that green, steep, or weirdly smooth.
Here’s an actual aerial shot from a similar angle taken by a real human:
43
u/Jay__Riemenschneider 4h ago
30
u/4r4r4real 4h ago
Yeah I would fully believe that it's green at times. Anyone who's lives in the Bay Area or similar has seen this - green for like 6 weeks and then brown the rest of the year. The cool rainy season is fleeting but everything is so lush while it lasts.
→ More replies (10)5
u/Auggie_Otter 3h ago
I was just thinking that myself. The one I always notice around here is San Bruno Mountain in South San Francisco which is usually covered in pale golden dormant grass but whenever we get some wet weather the whole mountain turns a vibrant green. The whole countryside in this region is like that.
→ More replies (1)38
u/Ethben 4h ago
I hate that everything that doesn't look 'right' is now AI somehow. OP looks more like a Google earth-esque 3D heightmap.
→ More replies (4)13
u/Funneduck102 3h ago
Yeah literally my first thought. Everything that I dont understand is AI though right lol
15
12
20
u/da3n_vmo 4h ago
Yeah I was thinking that road looked super undriveable.
9
u/CourageousBellPepper 3h ago edited 3h ago
It’s the perspective, and it can get pretty green after a rainy season. Even Southern California becomes lush for a little while after a lot of rain.
4
3
u/Rockytag 2h ago
There’s tunnel to drive in. The road you see is a hiking trail with some stairs
→ More replies (1)5
u/Hok1ePokie 3h ago
Diamond Head definitely gets green at rainier times of the year. Your aerial shot was just taken at a different time.
11
u/westonsammy 3h ago
Have you heard of seasons? This may blow your mind, but average weather changes across the year, causing grass and plants to either grow or die depending on said weather changes. That’s how a brown, barren rock in one part of the year can become a green, lush rock during another part.
→ More replies (7)7
4
u/Barn-Alumni-1999 3h ago
It varies from season to season and year to year. You can go and it is sometimes this green. Other times it's as brown and dry as the Sahara.
→ More replies (15)2
u/Meth_Useler 2h ago
It’s green from the beginning of the year-ish through May at the latest usually
9
u/RealZordan 5h ago
What are those two objects at around 5 o'clock that to the untrained, childish eye look like giant googly eyes? 👀
14
5
3
→ More replies (108)4
328
u/bigger_breakfast 5h ago
You can get to it with a golden chocobo
38
8
6
6
10
9
→ More replies (6)3
188
u/CultConqueror 5h ago
The climb up to the top of Diamond Head was brutal as someone who mostly does trail hikes. The constants stairs were hell on my thighs lol, but the view of the surrounding island is beautiful!
FYI that is an old government building now used for general park maintenance. The trail itself has some WW2 'pill boxes' and things that you can go through, pretty interesting history.
32
u/plzinsertgirder 4h ago
I did Koko head first when I went. Made Diamond Head feel like a walk in the park! Diamond Head was also super crowded so it didn't feel like the usual trails. I did it at 6am to see the sunrise. Everyone had the same idea.
11
u/CorporateHR 4h ago
Koko Head was the first thing I ever did in Hawaii. Really set the tone for the amount of hiking and excursioning we'd be doing for the next two weeks lol.
4
u/Just_The_Taint 3h ago
I made the mistake of riding my bike out there from Waikiki. I then did the stairs way too fast up and down, and rode back home. My legs were jelly for the next day.
→ More replies (2)2
4
u/Nothalffast 4h ago
I agree. I did it before it had the trail adjusted at the top. Those stairs were brutal. It was well worth the trek, though.
→ More replies (1)3
394
u/__Evil-Genius__ 5h ago
This would make an awesome fortified settlement in the event of a zombie apocalypse.
126
u/TRAVMAAN1 5h ago
Awesome containment of zombies.
18
u/lo_fi_ho 5h ago
And then just bomb it
8
→ More replies (1)13
u/TRAVMAAN1 4h ago
Plot twist- The volcano IS still active. A St Helens style eruption sends flaming zombies half way across the world
7
40
u/Old-Calligrapher2403 5h ago
Would they not just climb over and Into the crater?
→ More replies (10)4
u/CheckFlop 2h ago
It actually was a fortification. The hike that you go on as a tourist leads to the observation point.
→ More replies (5)2
u/WolfAkela 2h ago
This looks literally like the empire’s base in They Are Billions, a zombie game.
→ More replies (1)
28
u/Reasonable_Blood6959 4h ago
Anyone else remember this place from Test Drive: Unlimited?
7
u/marino1310 2h ago
Holy shit, I can’t believe someone here remembers that game lol. One of my favorite car games of all time
76
u/epanek 5h ago
I slept on that beach to the bottom right. After a night of drinking and rolling at the “wave” night club. Me and friends awoke to little crabs walking down the beach. Having a 3 day weekend with no duty in the navy was amazing.
→ More replies (2)15
u/Squid1972 4h ago
USS Chosin 93-96, and we were at The Wave every weekend we were in port and didn't have duty!
51
34
9
19
u/jollygrasshopper 4h ago
That's the Fire Nation Capital!
7
u/KnightOwlGame 4h ago
I had to scroll down SOOO far to find this and that's crazy to me
→ More replies (1)
9
91
u/Sunshine649 5h ago edited 5h ago
It's not a house... it's a state monument and visitor center building. Why would your first though be that this is someone house?
Edit: meant to reply to an arrogant comment, but somehow didnt. But ill add here that this is the Diamond Head State Monument. Some of these buildings aren't there anymore. There is a tunnel through the rim of the volcanoe so you can drive your car here and walk around the monument and up to the ridge of the crater, gives a nice view of Waikiki and the ocean. Only bad thing about this site is how packed it gets, and understandably so.
30
→ More replies (7)12
u/Wintaru 5h ago
How much of Kauai does Zuckerberg own again?
I know this isn't Kauai but the point is that it would not be shocking if some asshole billionaire lived there.
Thanks for sharing context though, that sounds like a cool place to visit.
→ More replies (1)
6
7
5
u/illest808 5h ago
If you guys can make it out there. There is an amazing lookout that has unbeatable views at the top. Bring good walking shoes.
6
5
5
u/tbodillia 1h ago
Nice to know it's a park and not a billionaire's home. Or Bond villain site.
→ More replies (1)
8
u/Fuzzylojak 4h ago
That land is extremely fertile, it has a unique geological mix where the eruption blasted through an ancient coral reef. This infused the volcanic rock with calcium from the coral to balance out the iron and magnesium usually found in lava. Over thousands of years this hardened ash has broken down into a soil that acts like a sponge to hold moisture for the plants while still allowing their roots to breathe. This combination of rich minerals and excellent drainage is the reason the crater floor can transform so quickly from dry brown to vibrant green the moment the winter rains arrive.
3
3
3
3
u/gettingthere_pastit 4h ago
Another ignorant question, how come a cone like this hasn't filled with water in the last half-million years?
8
4
3
3
3
u/prenderm 1h ago
I was stationed at Pearl Harbor. Diamond head is something you gotta do. Great hike
3
u/trying2bLessWrong 1h ago
I live very near to Diamond Head and run the trail a couple times a week for exercise.
One time, I was taking a break and overheard somebody’s dad very confidently explaining to his kids that Diamond Head was formed by a meteor impact, and that you could tell which direction the meteor came from because the ridge was higher on one side than the other.
Yep, the famous Diamond Head impact crater. Dinosaur killer. 😂
3
3
u/RiggityRiggityReckt 1h ago
I've actually climbed Diamondhead!! When you get to the top, there's a bunch of old World War II bunkers! Highly recommend if you get the chance!
5
u/mrdsensei1 4h ago
Yeah , dead. Not dormant. If you knew the history of the islands you would know this. Scientists know the age of the islands, how they were formed over hundreds of thousands of years. I’m sure I read it in a National Geographic magazine hundreds of years ago…..lol
7
2
2
2
u/Dependent-Potato2158 5h ago
in the 70s they had a few concerts in there "Crater Festival" it was infernally hot inside the crater but a pretty cool experience.
2
u/punched-in-face 5h ago
There's a cool one in Naples Italy with a baseball diamonds and a golf course in the center
2
2
2
2
u/WillMcNoob 4h ago
I remember this place having a mansion and a car rental (nobody will get this reference)
2
2
2
2
2
u/Sans-valeur 4h ago
Wew so cool! My whole city is a volcanic field so we have stuff like this, but it’s all way smaller!
This looks like home but also gigantic it’s so cool
2
2
2
u/klop2031 4h ago
I recall it being much dryer but yeah was nice. Kokohead was better tho
2
u/CheckFlop 2h ago
Koko is a challenge for many. I tried taking my wife up to the top, she only made it half way, so I finished with the dog.
I treated my wife the next day. We went back to Koko but this time we went to the other side and explored the botanical garden inside the crater.
2
2
2
u/Skeeders 4h ago
I imagine this when reading Michael Crichton's (Richard Preston's) 'Micro'. If you were ever a fan of his books, it was released like 10 years ago, its really good! A large part of the plot happens in this picture.
2
u/basscycles 4h ago
I wonder what kind of microclimate it has? Very sheltered from wind for a start I imagine.
2
u/Slh1973 4h ago
We hiked this a few years ago, the amount of folks puking from hiking too fast (including my spouse!) was insane.
→ More replies (2)
2
u/Joshuajword 3h ago
Obviously it’s an ancient tree from when trees reached space and also cities are buried underground and it’s flat
2
u/AcceptableLeader848 3h ago
Can create an anime on this about a grumpy old man and a bright kid.
But the twist - old man is the devil who ate the volcanic lava, not having satisfied his appetite is living a good life
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/_Tar_Ar_Ais_ 2h ago
At the visitor's centre there was a mongoose that kept trying to get a look at the ice cream I was eating, pretty funny experience
2
2
u/Hot-Abs143 1h ago
I remember the stairs up to the concrete bunker and having to duck to avoid smashing my head to enter.
2
u/Horace_P_MctittiesIV 1h ago
Reminds of a book where the magical world takes place in a crater next to a normal town
2
u/Krojack76 1h ago
I feel like some billionaire will try to buy that someday for their personal home if one already hasn't tried.
2
2
u/invincible_change 1h ago
Is there a road going up? What are the buildings? Was everything airlifted in? I’d hate to forget the coffee creamer at the grocery store
→ More replies (1)
2
2
2
u/Ecstatic_Charge_3903 1h ago
My hippie mom used to take me there to the crater festival in the 1970’s. I still remember the smell of pacalolo and seeing lots of topless women dancing to the rock music.
2
u/reddit_chino 42m ago
The view of Waikiki beach and strip of high rises is stellar from the top WWII bunker.
There used to be an annual festival inside every summer for kids.
On the upper right side my older relatives and grandparents are buried in that cemetery lawn.
2
u/pianomasian 40m ago
That's the perfect natural defense in case of a zombie outbreak. I wonder what those buildings in there are.
2
1.9k
u/MCD4KBG 5h ago
There's a fun trail that goes up there too