The 8-mile hole in a Hawaii national park that no one can explain

The 8-mile hole in a Hawaii national park that no one can explain(sfgate.com)

44 points by elsewhen 1 day ago | 35 comments

mackwell 3 hours ago |

Do the makers of sites like this know how terrible it is to try to actually read an article on them? Just tried on iOS. As you scroll, the ads load and change and throw you to a different part of the page and you lose your place repeatedly.

After about 4 times, I bailed.

Volv 1 hour ago | |

Its fine on PC with AdBlock. Possibly that's all they test. I sometimes wonder how these devs can sleep at night - random news websites. in the UK the sun or similar - unreadable nonsense auto play videos pop over ads etc etc. I imagine they start at - don't block ads somehow - your problem.

freetime2 50 minutes ago | |

I actually got hit with a captcha before I could even read the article, and promptly clicked the back button. Sounds like it was for the best.

mkozlows 45 minutes ago | |

This is why I use Firefox on mobile; I'm addicted to the ad-free browsing life.

stevenwoo 3 hours ago | |

The Hearst papers uses some pretty terrible ad networks and it’s done so for years so one would have to assume it’s on purpose, like torrent tracker website ads. I only put up with it cause it’s free for now.

dylan604 2 hours ago | | |

(Un)ironically, it's free precisely because of all of the ads and data harvesting

dunham 2 hours ago | |

On most news sites, the ads are annoying and the sheer weight of the third party tracking and ad javascript make them unusable.

But I've found that a lot of news sites are bearable with javascript disabled. On chrome desktop, you can do that per site via the site settings in the location bar. On iOS, I'm using Quiche browser. It's subscription, but it can disable javascript per site and has auto dark mode functionality.

IncreasePosts 1 hour ago | | |

I like to just have JavaScript disabled by default, and as I encounter a site rarely that isn't usable with JavaScript, I just explicitly allow JavaScript for that domain

It's incredible to see how fresh the web feels and how much better your battery life is when you're not running a bunch of code in every tab you have open

LoganDark 2 hours ago | | |

I wouldn't necessarily mind a paid browser if there were a lifetime option. Apparently you weren't kidding about subscription.

megablast 18 minutes ago | |

Use reader. That’s what it is for.

gregglain 1 hour ago | |

Oh they know I am certain. For these sites it's a game of reload and go into airplane mode before too much crap loads.

recursive 1 hour ago | | |

If you haven't tried it, Reader mode in Firefox is perfect for this.

boringg 55 minutes ago | |

The article itself feels like clickbait.

tintor 1 hour ago | |

Ads will also bring you zero-click exploits.

Just install ad blocker and js blocker on all devices.

idiotsecant 43 minutes ago | |

You saw the ads, right?

Job done. Who cares if you read the article.

lukan 1 hour ago | |

Have you heard of the existence of adblockers?

dockd 3 hours ago |

Oregon has https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_in_the_Ground and it's much easier to get to.

somat 3 hours ago | |

If we are doing a survey on great cracks, I vote the one in Utah as the most unsettling.

https://www.outono.net/elentir/2025/07/10/the-huge-crevasse-...

My understanding it was a layer of asphalt that got turned sideways(vertical) and as such that was how it was mined. Leaving a very eerie hole.

mlmonkey 2 hours ago |

GMaps link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/HUA5m4KPJmbeqJEF6

viraptor 1 hour ago |

I totally expected this to be another case of the Mystery Flesh Pit https://www.mysteryfleshpitnationalpark.com/ Pleasant surprise it was not.

mcswell 2 hours ago |

Iceland has the Þingvellir valley, which is an above-sea continuation of the rift valley down the middle of the Mid-Atlantic ridge. It includes the Silfra, which is underwater (fresh water) at the lowest part of the valley. The Great Crack in Hawai'i is of course not such a major rift, but it is the same idea: upwelling magma raises the ground, creating a crack like in a loaf of raising bread.

The Great Rift in Idaho is another volcanic rift valley, which (IIUC) passes through Craters of the Moon National Monument (where the Apollo astronauts trained).

nonfamous 3 hours ago |

Interesting story, but if you go there it’s going to be hard to follow up on yourself:

>>> When I contacted AllTrails with questions about the route, the company removed it from the app.

mannyv 2 hours ago |

The author needs to pack a small drone next time they head out. They're light, easy to use, and take pretty OK pictures.

It's funny how these big geo features are all hidden. I mean, it's a big crack in the Earth. Maybe this is where the lizard people come from, so anyone that talks about "the crack" disappears?

cogogo 2 hours ago | |

It is not permitted to fly drones on National Park land without permission - which to my knowledge they rarely give.

ajb92 2 hours ago | |

It was nice knowing you, mannyv.

brudgers 2 hours ago | |

It’s a National Park, the use of drones is substantially restricted.

daveguy 46 minutes ago |

It's referred to as The Great Crack.

There's a brief description of it in the Park Expansion subsection of the Description section of this wiki article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawai%CA%BBi_Volcanoes_Nationa...

tobadzistsini 2 hours ago |

A great site for a CoC scenario per the article.

LoganDark 3 hours ago |

It's honestly very difficult for me to see the depth or scale in any of these photos. I can't really tell where the crack is supposed to be or how it reaches a 66-foot depth at any point.

dylan604 2 hours ago | |

It sounds similar to the Grand Canyon. Intellectually, we know it is big and deep and wide. Being there and seeing it for the first time is more of an emotional understanding of how big and deep and wide it is as if you didn't already know it intellectually. As they say, it never fails to impress. The sheer size is impossible to recreate emotionally. Maybe if they had put a human for scale it might help.

LoganDark 2 hours ago | | |

Yeah, but I can't even really get to the intellectual conclusion from the photos, is the thing. Like, I want to at least see a sign of it that doesn't look like just a small cave. It's very difficult to see the scale of rocky landscapes from a photo, I guess maybe a person for scale wouldn't hurt. I don't need to see the full entire depth, but I just see so little in general. Maybe there's more in the photo, but I'm not interpreting the rough rock faces well enough. Can't really get any information from the shadows either.