Wiktionary
n. (context geology English) A zone of unharmed land completely surrounded by lava flows.
Wikipedia
A kīpuka is an area of land surrounded by one or more younger lava flows. A kīpuka forms when lava flows on either side of a hill, ridge, or older lava dome as it moves downslope or spreads from its source. Older and more weathered than their surroundings, kīpukas often appear to be like islands within a sea of lava flows. They are often covered with soil and late ecological successional vegetation that provide visual contrast as well as habitat for animals in an otherwise inhospitable environment.
Usage examples of "kipuka".
Like the Kipuka Club, the estate was a thriving combination of native and introduced species.
The Kipuka was a members-only supper club supported by a mixture of university types, volcano crawlers, national-park scientists and volunteers, and native Hawaiians such as Bobby Kamehameha, the club’s owner and the drummer for the dancers.
No matter how passionately the patrons pleaded or argued, the wailing, twanging music was forbidden within the Kipuka Club’s carved wooden walls.
There was no point in starting another one until Dane’s brother got up and running on his kipuka study.
Then she would have some idea of how much time to budget, and when, for the kipuka project.
Soon the discussion turned into the kind of scientific free-for-all that was the Kipuka Club’s major attraction for its loyal members.
She wanted to rush through Saturday so that she could go to the Kipuka Club tonight and dance to the dark, rhythmic thunder of Chase Wilcox’s drums.
And she danced in the Kipuka Club, bringing to its small stage the incandescent sensual yearnings that Tahitian dances expressed so vividly.
It was a tough scramble up and across the lava, and tougher still to get down into the kipuka floor.
When the lava flow combined again farther down the slope, it walled off the kipuka from the rest of the devastated land.
Ferns in more shapes and heights and kinds than she could name crowded over the hard rock floor of the kipuka, sending slender fronds toward the life-giving sun.
This was all very preliminary, more of a lark than real work, but he had a feeling that the secret kipuka would be an ideal subject for the book.
When he had secure footing in the kipuka, he turned at the bottom and glanced back up.
The age of the regrowth gave a rough estimate of the age of the kipuka itself.
He hadn’t seen anything like this kipuka outside of botanical gardens.