11

2

3

The length of the Hawaiian Ridge segment alone, between the Big Island and Midway Island to the northwest, is about 1,600 miles, roughly the distance from Washington, D.C., to Denver, Colorado. The amount of lava erupted to form this huge ridge, about 186,000 cubic miles, is more than enough to cover the State of California with a mile-thick layer. From: USGS, “Origin of the Hawaiian Islands”

4

The Hawaiian Hotspot: Active Today on the Big Island

5

4.9

https://youtu.be/AhSaE0omw9o

Mantle Plume (“hotspot”)

*

*Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology

6

7

http://www.coolgeography.co.uk/A-level/AQA/Year%2013/Plate%20Tectonics/Plate%20tectonics/Hotspots_formation.jpg

Common Types of Hawaiian Lava Release

“Blazing curtain” rift flow “Fountaining”

Seepage and lava lake flow

8

Depth to Ocean Floor (data variable by source)1. Mauna Kea – 13,803’ + ~19,000’ = ~33,000’2. Mauna Loa – 13,679’ + 16,400’ = 30,085’3. Haleakala – 10,023’ + 19,680’ = 29,703’4. Everest (to valley floor) – 29,029’

Mauna Kea

Mauna Loa

Haleakala

9

Kilauea (4091’)

Lo’ihi Seamount 0.4 MY –present*

*expected to break surface in ~60,000 years; currently 3,000’ below surface 10

Big Island (Hawaii)1 MY - present

11

12

13

N

14

Current areas of activity

Recent historic flows

15

ML, Kil – ActiveMK – last 4,500 YAHualalai – last 1801Kohala – last 120 KYA

16

Mauna Kea

17

Mauna Loa

18

19

Mauna Loa

20

21

Kilauea

May 24, 1969 22

June 17-19, 2007

Kilauea flank movement

1970-1989

23

“Rain shadow” effect

Erosion result

Kohala Mountain, Big Island

24

Maui1.2 – 0.8 MY

Kahoolawe – 1.0 MY >

Haleakala –10,023’

25

Oahu 3.7 –2.6 MY

26

Kauai – 5.1 MY

27

Waimea Canyon

Napali Coast

Niihau4.9 MY

28

Meiji, 82 Ma

29

It is “… amazing that in the past 65 million years there has been only one such bend. Even more remarkable is the observation that the straight portions of the chain are straight. … the configuration of the plate boundaries in the Pacific have changed dramatically during the lifetime of the Hawaiian hotspot. If, as many geophysicists believe, subduction drives tectonics, then how on earth can the straight parts be so straight and move at constant velocities for tens of millions of years? The answer to these questions remains a mystery! Earth Science Stack Exchange, 2014

30

“The Hawaiian-Emperor Chain is an example of a hotspot track – a trail of volcanic islands and seamounts created on a lithospheric plate as the plate slowly shifts over a spot of localized melting sourced by a jet of hot material rising from the deep mantle (mantle plume). T. Torsvik et al., 2017

31

60°

Pacific Plate fracture zones

???

???

32

33“Old” Kauai “New” Hawaii

Okhotsk Plate

Pacific Plate

34

35

Northern Pacific Plate moving NW at ~6-8 cm/yr (~2.5-3.2”/yr)

36

37

38

~9.2 cm/yr(3.6”/yr)

~5.5 cm/yr(2.2”/yr)

39

from: ‘Ocean Basin Evolution and Global-Scale Plate Reorganization Events Since PangeaBreakup’ by RD Muller et al., April 29 2016, in Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 40

from: ‘Ocean Basin Evolution and Global-Scale Plate Reorganization Events Since PangeaBreakup’ by RD Muller et al., April 29 2016, in Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences

41

42

Fa = Farallon PlateVa = Vancouver (Juan de Fuca) Plate – remnant Farallon Plate

43

44

45

Safety

46

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjs_XSoFO30&feature=youtu.be 47

Kilauea – Dec. 31, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzFeZTVxDeY

March 5, 2011

48

Characteristics of Hawaiian Volcanoes, 2014, USGS Prof. Paper 1801, Ed. by Michael P. Poland, Taeko Jane Takahashi, and Claire M. Landowski

49