Kipuka

A kipuka is an area of land surrounded by one or more younger lava flows, forming when lava moves around a hill, ridge or older lava dome as it spreads downslope from its source. Older and more weathered than the surrounding terrain, kipukas often appear as islands within a sea of lava and are frequently covered in soil and later successional vegetation, giving them an important role as biological refugia from which the newly covered land can be recolonized.