IWILEI, Hawaii (KHON2) — In the middle of Iwilei, on the corner of Dillingham Blvd and Akepo Lane, lays an ancient rock covered in fossils typically seen near the ocean.
Experts said the rock was actually a reef, and the area was once the shoreline.
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“It’s fossiliferous limestone,” explained Chip Fletcher, UH Manoa interim dean of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. “It has coral fossils, it has mollusk fossils, it is a reef and it is a shoreline, essentially.”
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He said this ancient shoreline stretches as far as the H1 freeway near Manoa and this type of rock can also be found in Kailua and Kaena Point.
“Nominally, the ocean was ten feet higher than that actual rock,” explained Fletcher.
Last week, a Honolulu city council member highlighted the often-overlooked site and did his own research. He found geologists wrote about this reef back in the 30s.