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Hawaiian Islands

Hawaiian Islands is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hawaiian Islands rather than just read about it. In short: The Hawaiian Islands (Hawaiian: Mokupuni Hawaiʻi) are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the island of Hawaiʻi in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll. Formerly called the Sandwich Islands, the present name for the archipelago is derived from the name of its largest island, Hawaiʻi.

Hawaiian Islands — main illustration
Hawaiian Islands — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Hawaiian Islands belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Hawaiian Islands to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Hawaiian Islands from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Hawaiian Islands (Hawaiian: Mokupuni Hawaiʻi) are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the island of Hawaiʻi in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll. Formerly called the Sandwich Islands, the present name for the archipelago is derived from the name of its largest island, Hawaiʻi. The archipelago sits on the Pacific Plate. The islands are exposed peaks of a great undersea mountain range known as the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain, formed by volcanic activity over the Hawaiian hotspot. The islands are about 1,860 miles (3,000 km) from the nearest continent and are part of the Polynesia subregion of Oceania. The U.S. state of Hawaii occupies the archipelago almost in its entirety (including the mostly uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands), with the sole exception of Midway Atoll (a United States Minor Outlying Island). Hawaii is the only U.S. state that is situated entirely on an archipelago, and the only state not geographically connected with North America. The Northwestern islands (sometimes called the Leeward Islands) and surrounding seas are protected as a national monument and World Heritage Site.

Islands and reefs The Hawaiian Islands have a total land area of 6,423.4 square miles (16,636.5 km2). Except for Midway, which is an unincorporated unorganized territory of the United States, these islands and islets are administered as Hawaii—the 50th state of the United States.

Major islands

The eight major islands of Hawaii (Windward Islands) are listed above. All islands except Kaho'olawe are inhabited.

Minor islands, islets

The state of Hawaii counts 137 "islands" in the Hawaiian Chain. This number includes all minor islands (small islands), islets (even smaller islands) offshore of the major islands (listed above), and individual islets in each atoll. These include:

Kaʻula Kāohikaipu Lehua Mānana Mōkōlea Rock Mokoliʻi Moku Manu Mokuauia Moku o Loʻe Moku Ola Mokuʻumeʻume Molokini Nā Mokulua

Partial islands, atolls, reefs

Partial islands, atolls, reefs—those west of Niʻihau are uninhabited except Midway Atoll—form the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (Leeward Islands):

Nīhoa (Mokumana) Necker (Mokumanamana) French Frigate Shoals (Kānemilohaʻi) Gardner Pinnacles (Pūhāhonu) Maro Reef (Nalukākala) Laysan (Kauō) Lisianski Island (Papaʻāpoho) Pearl and Hermes Atoll (Holoikauaua) Midway Atoll (Pihemanu) Kure Atoll (Mokupāpapa)

Geology

This chain of islands, or archipelago, developed as the Pacific Plate slowly moved northwestward over a hotspot in the Earth's mantle at a rate of approximately 32 miles (51 km) per million years. Thus, the southeast island is volcanically active, whereas the islands on the northwest end of the archipelago are older and typically smaller, due to longer exposure to erosion. The age of the archipelago has been estimated using potassium-argon dating methods. From this study and others, it is estimated that the northwesternmost island, Kure Atoll, is the oldest at approximately 28 million years (Ma); while the southeasternmost island, Hawaiʻi, is approximately 0.4 Ma (400,000 years). The only active volcanism in the last 200 years has been on the southeastern island, Hawaiʻi, and on the submerged but growing volcano to the extreme southeast, Kamaʻehuakanaloa (formerly Loʻihi). The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory of the USGS documents recent volcanic activity and provides images and interpretations of the volcanism. Kīlauea had been erupting nearly continuously since 1983 when it stopped August 2018. Almost all of the magma of the hotspot has the composition of basalt, and so the Hawaiian volcanoes are composed almost entirely of this igneous rock. There is very little coarser-grained gabbro and diabase. Nephelinite is exposed on the islands but is extremely rare. The majority of eruptions in Hawaiʻi are Hawaiian-type eruptions because basaltic magma is relatively fluid compared with magmas typically involved in more explosive eruptions, such as the andesitic magmas that produce some of the spectacular and dangerous eruptions around the margins of the Pacific basin. Hawaiʻi island (the Big Island) is the biggest and youngest island in the chain, built from five volcanoes. Mauna Loa, taking up over half of the Big Island, is the largest shield volcano on the Earth. The measurement from sea level to summit is more than 2.5 miles (4 km), from sea level to sea floor about 3.1 miles (5 km).

Earthquakes

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Hawaiian Islands illustration
Hawaiian Islands illustration
Hawaiian Islands: Hawaiian Islands from space.[11]
Hawaiian Islands from space.[11]
Hawaiian Islands: 3-D perspective view of the southeastern Hawaiian Islands, with the white summits of Mauna Loa (4,170 m or 13,680 ft high) and Mauna Kea (4,207.3 m or 13,803 ft high). The islands are the tops of massive volcanoes, the bulk of which lie below the sea surface. Ocean depths are colored from violet (5,750 m or 18,860 ft deep northeast of Maui) and indigo to light gray (shallowest). Historical lava flows are shown in red, erupting from the summits and rift zones of Mauna Loa, Kilauea, and Hualalai volcanoes on Hawaiʻi.
3-D perspective view of the southeastern Hawaiian Islands, with the white summits of Mauna Loa (4,170 m or 13,680 ft high) and Mauna Kea (4,207.3 m or 13,803 ft high). The islands are the tops of massive volcanoes, the bulk of which lie below the sea surface. Ocean depths are colored from violet (5,750 m or 18,860 ft deep northeast of Maui) and indigo to light gray (shallowest). Historical lava flows are shown in red, erupting from the summits and rift zones of Mauna Loa, Kilauea, and Hualalai volcanoes on Hawaiʻi.
Hawaiian Islands: Aerial view of Lēʻahi or Diamond Head, Oʻahu
Aerial view of Lēʻahi or Diamond Head, Oʻahu

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hawaiian Islands

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hawaiian Islands claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hawaiian Islands before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hawaiian Islands ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hawaiian Islands

In research
Hawaiian Islands appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Hawaiian Islands in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Hawaiian Islands is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Archipelagoes of Oceania, Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean, Archipelagoes of the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Hawaiian Islands outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study Hawaiian Islands in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Hawaiian Islands means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Hawaiian Islands out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hawaiian Islands in simple terms?

The Hawaiian Islands (Hawaiian: Mokupuni Hawaiʻi) are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the island of Hawaiʻi in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll. Formerly ca…

Why does Hawaiian Islands matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hawaiian Islands?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hawaiian Islands.

Tags

  • Archipelagoes of Oceania
  • Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean
  • Archipelagoes of the United States
  • Eastern Indo-Pacific
  • Geography of Polynesia
  • Geology of Hawaii
  • Hudson's Bay Company trading posts
  • Islands of Hawaii
  • Marine ecoregions
  • Physical oceanography

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