The fiery rampage earned Kīlauea the top slot in the the U.S. The eruption also reshaped the island, forming a new black sand beach and even a short-lived baby island off its coast. At times during the eruption, the lava spewed more than a hundred feet in the air and flowed like water, forming deadly rivers that inundated local communities and cost millions of dollars in damages and lost tourism. It last erupted in 1984, spouting lava down its eastern flank for 22 days.īut it was Hawaii's Kīlauea volcano that made global headlines in May 2018 as it embarked on a months-long eruption-the latest leg of a lengthy burst of activity that started in 1983. Standing some 13,100 feet above sea level and encompassing more than 2,000 square miles, Mauna Loa bears the title of the second largest active volcano in the world.
Many more questions remain unanswered: Where do Hawaii's hotspot plumes come from? How long do they usually stick around? How does magma split between the Big Island's currently active volcanoes? With continued research, scientists hope to dig through these and other lingering mysteries. While its origins have been debated, it likely reflects a shift in the motion of the Pacific plate. One particularly curious feature is that there's a sharp turn in the middle of the Hawaiian Ridge-Emperor Seamounts chain. In the years since, additional research has refined and added detail to that early notion. The filmmakers created the content presented, and the opinions expressed are their own, not those of the National Geographic Society. The Short Film Showcase spotlights exceptional short videos created by filmmakers from around the web and selected by National Geographic editors. In 1963, Canadian geophysicist John Tuzo-Wilson proposed that tectonic plate movement over a hotspot could explain these volcanic enigmas.Ĭome face-to-face with one of nature's most intriguing phenomena, lava, in this short from Page Films. But the Hawaiian volcanic chain resides far from any plate edges.
Most volcanoes form near the edges of Earth's tectonic plates, the ever-shifting puzzle pieces that make up the planet's surface. It's part of a massive mountain range known as the Hawaiian Ridge-Emperor Seamounts chain, which stretches some 3,700 miles and nearly reaches the coast of Alaska.
The Hawaiian archipelago is merely the latest, largely above-water result of volcanism that began some 70 million years ago. Volcanoes born from this activity actually extend much further than we can see. On the more ancient landmasses, the volcanoes are no longer active because they have been cut off from the hotspot's supply of magma.
#HAWAII HAS ONLY TAKEN 7 IMMIGRANTS IN HAWAII SERIES#
That movement formed the series of islands, which are progressively older as you go westward. Because of this, the volcanic activity on the planet's surface also shifts. While the hotspot itself remains largely stationary, the overriding Pacific plate does not it creeps northwest at a rate of three to four inches each year. Its molten rock fuels the eruption of this island's four active volcanoes: Mauna Loa, Kīlauea, Hualālai, and the offshore underwater volcano Lōihi.
The hotspot is thought to lurk for now below the archipelago's youngest and most active landmass, the Big Island of Hawaii. The eight primary islands that make up this archipelago owe their existence to a roiling spot of magma deep under the ocean floor known as the Hawaii hotspot. Without volcanoes, there would be no Hawaii.
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