Maui Nui or Greater Maui, is a modern geologists' name given to a prehistoric Hawaiian Island built from seven shield volcanoes. Nui means "great/large" in the Hawaiian language. 1.2 million years ago, Maui Nui was 14,600 square kilometres (5,600 sq mi), 40% larger than the present-day island of Hawaiʻi. Sea levels were lower than today's, due to distant glaciation locking up the Earth's water during ice ages, thus exposing more land. As the volcanoes slowly settled by subsidence, due to the weight of the shield volcanoes and erosion, the saddles between them slowly flooded, forming four islands: Maui, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, and Kahoʻolawe by about 200,000 years ago. Another former volcanic island lying west of Molokaʻi was completely submerged, and covered with a cap of coral; it is now known