Hawaii

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary in Hawaii, a couple of years ago and I absolutely loved the place. I was going through some of my old files and came across this recountal. And I thought I'd share it with you!

Hawaii - born of the sea, born of the fire: that’s what the saying goes when referred to the planet's youngest islands.

The way these islands were formed itself makes a fascinating story. Millions of years ago a hotspot (red hot material rising from the planet's core) was formed in the earth's crust. From beneath the bed of the Pacific Ocean, magma (lava under the earth's surface) started sprouting. But as soon as the magma hit water, it cooled down immediately hardening. Through the hardened lava, again the magma would sprout and cool down. This process would continue for thousands of years forming a mountain under the ocean and still rising. One day the pile of lava would jet out of the water creating an island. So, all the Hawaiian islands were formed by the action and reaction of volcanoes and ocean.

We know that Hawaii is a chain of islands, the main ones being Kauai, Oahu, Maui and Big Island. All of these islands are spread out in the Northwest-Southeast fashion. The most interesting part was that all these islands were formed by only one hotspot in the earth's crust. How did one hotspot create different islands miles away from each other? It is because the Pacific tectonic place which covers the hotspot is moving about 4 inches northeast every year.
So, Kauai (topmost of the islands) stood over the hotspot millions of years ago and the island was formed. Slowly as the tectonic plate moved upwards, so did the island making the volcanoes dormant. And a new island Oahu took its place and when it moved on. Then Maui happened. And now the hot spot in the Pacific Plate is feeding the active volcano Mt. Kilauea in Big Island. As the lava continues to spill out and the plate moving upwards, thousands of acres of land is being added to the Big Island. We were fortunate enough to actually see the lava streams flowing off the mountain into the sea.
And to witness the creation of what would be the newest addition of real estate to the planet was absolutely awe-inspiring experience!

As the Big Island is slowly moving away, another island is being born. The mountain of cooled lava about 20 miles southeast is yet to rise above the ocean. At present, it is about 3000 ft below the ocean surface and growing. So, after some thousands of years - one of our future generations would witness one more island added to the state of Hawaii and a brand new chunk of property to the earth..