Information On The Formation Of The Islands

There are three different types of plate boundaries. The first type of plate boundaries is, the spreading boundary. A spreading boundary is when two plates move apart. The spreading boundary is also known as a divergent boundary. The second type of plate boundary is a colliding boundary. A colliding boundary is when two plates come together, or collide. It is also known as convergent boundary. The third is, a sliding boundary. A sliding boundary is when two plates slip past each other moving in opposite directions. It is also known as transform boundary. Those were the three different types of plate

There are three distinct types of plate boundaries existing, which are supported by geological observation, geophysical data, and theoretical considerations. Their names and categories are based on if adjacent plates move apart from each other (divergent plate margins), toward one another (convergent plate margins), or slip past one another in a direction parallel to their common boundary (transform plate margins) (Pitman, W.C., 2007).

Located in the Pacific Ocean, Hawaii and the Hawaiian Islands are the cone-shaped tops of gigantic ocean volcanoes.

Essentially, the key fact that makes the islands of Hawaii so unique and worthy of studying is that nearly the entire mountain range is built entirely by volcanic activity and each island is the top of an enormous volcanic mountain. These exceptional qualities fuel the study of how the islands themselves were created, in order to answer the curiosities behind the composition of some of the most extravagant volcanoes in the world.

8.30 Describe the direction of movement of the Pacific plate during the development of the volcanic islands that comprise the

The Earth’s outer crust is made up many tectonic plates that move over the surface of the planet. When the plates come collide, volcanoes will form sometime (National Ocean Service). Volcanoes can also form in the middle of a plate, where magma rises upward until it erupts on the sea floor, at what is called a “hot spot” (National Ocean Service). A hot spot is a plume of magma or molten rock that rises from within the Earth then reaches the surface forming underwater volcanoes which may grow tall enough to

To begin, Hawaii is the longest chain of islands in the world. It was originally formed by a fissure more than 1600 miles long that lies along the floor of the Pacific Ocean that produced the Hawaiian ridge. Along the ridge then formed individual dorms that formed what we know today as the Hawaiian Islands (Webmaster). It is now over 3,300 kilometers long, made up of longs strings of islands and reefs (US

Out of the six islands that make up Hawaii, the island of Oahu is the third largest and second oldest. Oahu is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and plate at a latitude and longitude of 21.4389° N, 158.0001° W (Wikipedia, 2016). The island was created from the pacific plate hot spot, a still active intrusion of magma. A hot spot is a geological feature where hot magma from the inside of the earth leaks out onto the Earth’s crust through cracks in the lithosphere. Once the ejected magma hardens it adds to the surface of the Earth, increasing the land elevation in the area surrounding the hot spot. Over millions of years, the collected cooled magma breaks the surface of the ocean, forming a small island. The islands of Hawaii were all formed from the same hot spot in the center of the pacific. The pacific plate moves in the Northwest direction relative to the North American plate due to typical plate tectonics. While this occurs, the hot spot in the pacific remains in the same place ejecting magma on to the Earth’s surface. The movement of the plate has

Kilauea is made on the pacific plate on a hotspot. Unlike most volcanoes kilauea is not formed on a boundary line. At hotspots magma rises up and eventually breaks the surface creating a volcano. Since Kilauea is a Hotspot volcano they grow in size very slowly, and will stay active for thousands of years.

Plate tectonics move land masses around, and occasionally, interactions between different plates causes new land to form, and can even join two separate continents together, changing ocean currents and causing climate change. This is evident in the collision of the North and South American continents, which created the Isthmus of Panama, and separated the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean. Approximately 15 million years ago, the North and South American continent was cut off from each other by a seaway about 200 km wide. Over time, the South American plate collided with the Caribbean and Cocos plate, and gradually closed the exchange of the Caribbean and Pacific waters 3-4 million years ago. This resulted in several consequences.

There are many different types of volcanoes in the United States. Composite, Ciner and Shield are the three types of volcanoes. Over the history of Hawaii, covering about 85 million years, there have been 129 volcanoes formed due to the hot spot and of that 129, 123 of them are extinct or seamounts. In Hawaii today, there are currently five active volcanoes, Lo'ihi, Kilauea, Mauna Loa, Hualalai and Haleakala. Lo'ihi is the only underwater volcano in Hawaii; the other four volcanoes are above sea level. Kilauea is a hyperactive shield type volcano. Volcanoes are mainly found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging. The Mid Ocean Ridge is an example of divergent tectonic plates pulling apart, where the Ring of Fire is an example of convergent tectonic plates pushing together. Hawaii today is comprised of many different volcanoes with several different volcano types.

The Earth is always changing because of plate tectonics. Plate tectonics describes the behavior of earth's out shell, with pieces bumping and grinding each other about. Most of the world's active volcanoes are located along or near the boundaries between shifting plates and are called plate-boundary volcanoes. The Hawaiian Islands are one of the best examples of an intra-plate volcanic chain. They are developed by the northwest-moving Pacific Plate passing over an inferred hot spot that inmates the magma generating and volcano-formation process. The Ring of Fire in parts of the Pacific Ocean contain many active volcanoes which Mt. St. Helens is a part of. The zone along plate boundaries are the most geologically active regions on Earth.

Convergent Boundary- At convergent boundaries, two plates move toward one another, colliding and pushing into each other. The plate that is made of oceanic crust can slide down beneath another plate, which forms a deep narrow trench. As one is pushed under the other, the plate begins to melt, which causes a line of volcanoes to form that are in a parallel line to the trench. If both tectonic plates are continental crust, the plates will collapse or break up as they collide, which forms a high mountain

Magma can also push up under the middle of a lithosphere plate, though this is much less common than magma production around plate boundaries. This interplate volcanic activity is caused by unusually hot mantle material forming in the lower mantle and pushing up into the upper mantle. The mantle material, which forms a plume shape that is from 500 to 1000 km wide, wells up to create a hot spot under a particular point on the earth. Because of the unusual heat of this mantle material, it melts, forming magma just under the earth's crust. The hot spot itself is stationary; but as a continental plate moves over the spot, the magma will create a string of volcanoes, which die out once they move past the hot spot. The Hawaii volcanoes were created

The viscosity of this base is a function of the temperature. The study of shifting continental plates is called Plate Tectonics. Plate Tectonics allows scientists to locate regions of geothermal heat emission. Shifting continental plates cause weak spots or gaps between plates where geothermal heat is more likely to seep through the crust. These gaps are called Subduction Zones.