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USGS Pacific Coral Reefs Website

Panorama image of Hanalei Bay, Kaua‘i

Panorama created with photos taken from Hanalei Bay on the north coast of Kaua‘i.

Pan and zoom around the photo by clicking your mouse and dragging left and right, and up and down. With your mouse positioned on top of the photo, hold down the shift key to zoom in, or the control key to zoom out.

The USGS logo is centered looking west; south is to the left and north to the right of the logo. The Hanalei River, an American Heritage River, enters Hanalei Bay at the extreme right side of the image. Just offshore of the river mouth on the eastern side of the bay is a large fringing reef, which causes the small waves to break. Another large fringing reef is on the western side of the bay, just underneath the USGS logo.

During the winter months when large storms strike Kaua‘i from the north, rainfall is high in the mountains above the town of Hanalei (on the left side of the image) and the Hanalei River and other small streams carry large quantities of water and mud out into the bay. Large (10-30 foot high) waves cause the muddy water to quickly disperse from the bay.

During the summer months, however, rainfall is lighter, the river flow is generally lower, and waves in the North Pacific Ocean are generally small. As a result, water carrying mud and nutrients from the land flows into the bay, and likely resides there longer than during the winter.

View a static image of the panorama here.

Download the QuickTime VR panorama file:
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• Low-resolution 320x240 (1.8Mb)
• High-resolution 640x480 (4.1Mb)

Please note: the panoramas may take some time to download depending on your connection

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