Haleakalā or the East Maui Volcano, is a massive shield volcano

Shield volcano

A shield volcano is a type of volcano usually built almost entirely of fluid lava flows. They are named for their large size and low profile, resembling a warrior's shield. This is caused by the highly fluid lava they erupt, which travels farther than lava erupted from more explosive volcanoes...

 that forms more than 75% of the Hawaiian Island

Hawaiian Islands

The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...

 of Maui

Maui

The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...

. The western 25% of the island is formed by the West Maui Mountains

West Maui Mountains

The West Maui Mountains or West Maui Volcano, known to the Hawaiians as Maui Komohana and to geologists as Mauna Kahalawai, forms a much eroded shield volcano that constitutes the western one-quarter of the Hawaiian Island of Maui....

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Early Hawaiians applied the name Haleakalā ("house of the sun") to the general mountain. Haleakalā is also the name of a peak on the south western edge of Kaupō Gap. In Hawaiian folklore, the depression at the summit of Haleakalā was home to the grandmother of the demigod Māui

Maui (Hawaiian mythology)

In Hawaiian mythology, Māui is a culture hero who appears in several different genealogies. In the Ulu line he is the son of Akalana and his wife Hinakawea . This couple has four sons, Māui-mua, Māui-hope, Māui-kiikii and Māui-a-kalana. Māui-a-kalana's wife is named Hinakealohaila; and his son is...

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