Papakolea, Hawaii

The volcanic islands of Hawaii aren’t contented at leaving it to sugar-white. They mix it up with ebony black, Mars red – and green! Papakolea is not precisely blistering emerald, but it does have a discrete green hue from olivine crystals dumped on the beach by a volcanic explosion about 10,000 years ago. The beach gets greener as the water washes away the materials lighter than the crystals. In due course the olivine will run out and the beach will be grey, but not any time soon in human terms.