Lava Zones · West Hawaii

What lava zone are Kona, Waikoloa Beach Resort, Mauna Lani, and Mauna Kea in?

By Jeff Gaughan, Realtor (RS-81116), eXp Realty · Updated June 2026

The nine zones, and where West Hawaii sits

The U.S. Geological Survey divides Hawaii Island into nine lava flow hazard zones. Zone 1 is the highest hazard (the summits and rift zones of Kilauea and Mauna Loa) and Zone 9 is the lowest (the long-extinct Kohala mountains). The zones measure long-term probability of lava coverage, based on where vents are and how often flows have covered each area over thousands of years.

Kailua-Kona: Zone 4

All of Kailua-Kona town and most of North Kona, including the Ali'i Drive condo corridor, Keauhou, and the airport area, sit on the flanks of Hualalai in Zone 4. Hualalai is an active volcano, but it erupts on a timescale of centuries; its 1801 flow created the land Kona International Airport sits on today. In practical terms, Zone 4 means standard insurance from mainstream carriers, normal conventional and VA/FHA lending, and no lava discount or premium baked into resale values.

Waikoloa Beach Resort and Mauna Lani: Zone 3

The South Kohala resort corridor is built on Mauna Loa terrain. The land under Waikoloa Beach Resort includes flows from Mauna Loa's 1859 eruption, and Mauna Lani's famous black lavascape is the Kaniku flow, roughly 800 years old. That sounds dramatic until you look at the geography: these resorts sit dozens of miles from Mauna Loa's summit and rift zones, on the far northwestern edge of the mountain's reach. When Mauna Loa erupted in 2022, the flows ran toward Saddle Road on the other side of the island; the resorts saw nothing but distant glow and a few days of haze.

Zone 3 carries no insurance surcharges and no lending restrictions. A number that matters more to your underwriting: the zone designation is identical to Hilo's, but the resort corridor's parcel-level position relative to topography and distance is part of why the market has never priced lava risk into Kohala coast resort property.

Mauna Kea Resort: Zone 8

Cross from Mauna Lani toward Hapuna and Kauna'oa and you cross off Mauna Loa's terrain onto Mauna Kea's. Mauna Kea is classified as dormant; its last eruption was roughly 4,500 years ago. Zone 8 is about as low as lava hazard gets on an island with two of the most active volcanoes on Earth, which is one reason the Mauna Kea Resort area commands the premium it does.

Where lava zones actually bite: insurance in Zones 1 and 2

The reason this topic matters at all is Puna. In Zones 1 and 2 (Leilani Estates, Kalapana, much of lower Puna, parts of Ka'u), many standard carriers won't write policies, and owners use surplus-lines insurers or the Hawaii Property Insurance Association at meaningfully higher premiums, sometimes with lower coverage limits than lenders want to see. That dynamic compresses prices and complicates financing there. None of it applies to Kona or the Kohala resorts.

How to verify the zone on a specific parcel

1. Get the property's TMK (tax map key) from the listing or county records.
2. Look it up on the Hawaii County GIS parcel viewer or the USGS lava flow hazard map; the zone is a parcel-level attribute.
3. Remember the boundaries are gradational. USGS itself notes hazard changes gradually across zone lines, so a parcel near a boundary isn't meaningfully different from its neighbor across the line.

The seller's disclosure in Hawaii will also state the lava zone; it's a required material fact. If you want me to pull the zone and the full disclosure picture on a specific property, send me the address.