To view photos of Hawaii, Maui or Oahu, click on the name of the island above.

Scroll down to view a description of the Hawaiian island chain

  Hawaii is our fiftieth state.  It is an Arpeggio (a chain of islands) that has been formed by the Pacific plate moving over a "Hot Spot", a place where the Magma from the Earth's mantle has been able to break through the crust forming a Volcano.  The Hawaiian islands stretch from the "Big" island of Hawaii all the way past midway to almost the Asiatic plate. (By then ,there is not much left of the islands.)  The hot spot is currently slightly south east of the big island (forming a "little" island) which accounts for the continued volcanic activity on the island's southern side.  The hot spot has moved considerably since the islands were first inhabited.  When European man first came to the Hawaiian islands, Maui, the second largest of the islands, was still volcanically active and all four of the volcanos on the main island were active.  But Maui  is not active any  more, and two of the four volcanos on the main island are thought to be dead as well.  A third is considered to still be dormant, though it has not erupted in the past hundred years. In a couple hundred of years the last of the volcanos on the Big island will no longer be active, but a new island, currently being formed under water,  will be the active volcano and the newest of the Hawaiian islands.
  Because of this odd effect, a chain of islands has been formed extending to the Asiatic plate.  Because there are so many islands of different "ages" you can "see" natural succession taking place.  So each island differs greatly in regards to "native" plants and animals as well as landscapes.  It is amazing to see the rocky volcanic slopes of the Big island and imagine that they will in a few hundred years be like the slightly less rocky and more fertile slopes on Maui, and in a few more hundred years be fertile like Oahu.
  When I was studying the Hawaiian islands, I got a chance to visit the islands of Hawaii, Maui and Oahu and I have included some photos so you could see the difference between the three islands.
 

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