kipuka

plural kipukas · alternative kapuka

1. geographyA zone of unharmed land completely surrounded by lava flows.

   There’s a word Trevor once told me about, one he learned from Buford, who served in the navy in Hawaii during the Korean War: kipuka. The piece of land that’s spared after a lava flow runs down the slope of a hill—an island formed from what survives the smallest apocalypse.

   2019, Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Jonathan Cape, page 171