Hawaiian Island Essay

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In the central area of the Pacific Ocean lies the Hawaiian Islands spanning 2,400 kilometers long beginning at Kure Island, located in the northwest to big island of Hawaii (Edge of Fire). This island is 3,000 kilometers away from the nearest continent, which is North America. The creation of the islands today came from “Hotspots”, which are characterized as plumes of magma rising from the mantle of the Earth through the continental crust, creating huge shield volcanos which contribute to the land mass that subsequently gets created. With the help of divergent (creation) and convergent (destruction) zones, the Earth’s crust eventually moves the newly created landmass off the Hot Spot plume, effectively rendering the volcano extinct, and allowing for new land to be created over the still stationary (and active) plume in the mantle. The Hawaiian Islands are located on the Pacific plate. The Hawaiian volcanoes are known as intraplate volcanoes. Even though magma should not breach the oceanic crust in the middle of a plate, …show more content…

Tuzo Wilson hypothesized in 1963 that the production of the volcanic mounds of land were formed by Hotspots of magma that found its way through the oceanic crust. To account for the size and number of islands within the Hawaiian chain of islands (called the Hawaiian Ridge-Emperor Seamounts chain), it was believed that the Hotspot was stationary, while the Pacific plate moved at a rate of about 3 centimeters a year over it. When the hotspot produced magma, the plate (i.e. the crust) was simply in a new place, rendering one volcano extinct, and creating a new active one. The islands as they stand today are thought to have been made around 70 million years ago (USGS). What makes the islands of Hawaii so unique is their complete reliance on these magma filled Hotspots, making nearly the entire mountain range built entirely by volcanic activity; each island being the top of an enormous volcanic

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