Actually, I want to be a science fiction writer and a cartoonist. But I can write science fiction and draw pictures while i'm sitting on the shores of Hawaii, taking a break from my volcanology job.
Ah yes, the orgins of Hawaii:
The islands of Hawaii were born of the Hawaiian hot spot, which is situated under a thermal plume (basically the magma in the mantle is circulating, much like water in a pot boils), in a spot where the magma is circulating upwards. The hot spot is stationary, but the tectonic plates above it are moving. So the hot spot forms a chain of islands.
It might be interesting to know that Hot Spots erupt much larger quantities of magma than any other volcano would erupt. The largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons on Mars, is an example of what would happen if the crust did NOT move over a hot spot.
The hawaiian islands are made of Basalt, a very heavy and dense rock, the same rock that ocean crust is made of. Basalt has Iron and Magnesium in it, heavy elements (contenental crust is mostly quartz and feldspar, very light minerals made of light elements). Because it is heavy and because the lava flows out of the hot spot so quickly, the volcanoes get too high for themselves to support. Because of this, they break and cause massive landslides where up to a third of the island can fall into the ocean at one time.
The hawaiian islands with break and slowly sink, untill they reach equilibrium with the pressure of the atmosphere. If you look at an ocean map (
http://biblesearchers.com/catastrophes/catastrophes8_files/image011.jpg ) you can see the rest of the mostly submurged hawaiin island chain.
Notice that the chain makes a sudden 45 degree angle. This is when the tectonic plates suddenly changed direction!
It's theroized that hot spots are created when large meteors hit the earth and cause a deep fracture that extends all the way to the mantle, allowing magma to travel upwards along it. So Hawaii might exist because of a catastrophic meteor impact!
YOUR SCIENCE LESSON FOR THE DAY.
tell me if you want me to stop. I get totally excited over these things.
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