Page 423 - Hawaii: Diving, Surfing, Pearl Harbor, Volcanoes and More

Fire and Water: The Ever Changing Hawaii

he Hawaii hotspot is a volcanic hotspot lo- of years. According to this theory, the nearly 60°
T cated near the namesake Hawaiian Islands, bend separating the Emperor and Hawaiian seg-
in the northern Pacific Ocean. One of the most ments of the chain was caused by a sudden shift
well-known and heavily studied hotspots in the in the movement of the Pacific Plate. In 2003,
world, the Hawaii plume is responsible for the fresh investigations of this irregularity led to the
creation of the Hawaiian – Emperor seamount proposal of a mobile hotspot theory, suggesting
chain, an over 5,800 kilometres (3,600 mi) long that hotspots are mobile, not fixed, and that the
chain of volcanoes, four of which are active, 47 million year old bend was caused by a shift in
two of which are dormant, and more than the hotspot’s motion rather than the plate’s.
123 of which are extinct, many having since
been ground beneath the waves by erosion as ncient Hawaiians were the first to
seamounts and atolls. The chain extends from A recognize the increasing age and
south of the island of Hawai’i to the edge of the weathered state of the volcanoes to the
Aleutian Trench, near the eastern edge of Russia. north as they progressed on fishing expedi-
While most volcanoes are created by geological tions along the islands. The volatile state of
activity at tectonic plate boundaries, the Hawaii the Hawaiian volcanoes and their constant
hotspot is located far from nearby plate bounda- battle with the sea was a major element
ries; the classic hotspot theory, first proposed in in Hawaiian mythology, embodied in Pele,
1963 by John Tuzo Wilson, proposes that a single, the deity of volcanoes. After the arrival
fixed mantle plume builds volcanoes that then, of Europeans on the island, in 1880-1881
cut off from their source by the movement of the James Dwight Dana directed the first formal
Pacific Plate, become increasingly inactive and geological study.
eventually erode below sea level over millions