Kahiwa Falls is a tiered waterfall

Waterfall

A waterfall is a place where flowing water rapidly drops in elevation as it flows over a steep region or a cliff.-Formation:Waterfalls are commonly formed when a river is young. At these times the channel is often narrow and deep. When the river courses over resistant bedrock, erosion happens...

 in Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

 located on the northern shore of the island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 of Molokai

Molokai

Molokai or Molokai is an island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is 38 by 10 miles in size with a land area of , making it the fifth largest of the main Hawaiian Islands and the 27th largest island in the United States. It lies east of Oahu across the 25-mile wide Kaiwi Channel and north of...

, between Wailau and Papalaua valleys. The waterfall is about 2165 feet (660 meters) tall, although often only 1749 feet of its drop are counted as the main fall.

Falls have 6 tiers, the highest drop is 183 m tall. Kahiwa Falls can be observed only from the sea or from air. At strong winds the waterfall may get caught and rise upwards..

Often the nearby Papalaua Falls are mistaken for Kahiwa Falls. Kahiwa Falls can easily be distinguished from Papalaua Falls – the later are located at the far end of a 0.9 km-long valley, while Kahiwa Falls fall directly into the ocean.