Hawaii as a Natural Laboratory

Did you know that Hawaii is the world’s most remote island chain? The Hawaiian Islands are located 2,390 miles from California and 3,850 miles from Japan, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The isolation of the islands has allowed for a diverse range of flora and fauna.

Formerly known as the Sandwich islands (after the Earl, not the food), the Hawaiian Islands were formed by underwater volcanic activity. The islands we know and love are merely the very tops of massive underwater mountains. Mauna Kea, on the Big Island, is actually the world’s tallest mountain from base to summit! At over 10,000 meters (compared with 8,848 for Everest) Mauna Kea is truly a natural wonder. Southpoint on the Big Island is also the most southern point in the United States.

The Hawaiian Islands are unusual in that they did not form at the border of a tectonic plate–at an area where the plates that form the crust of our world are banging into each other. The Himalaya are located at the border of a two plates, as are the Andes and other great mountain ranges. But the Hawaiian Islands formed in the middle of the Pacific plate. How is this possible?

Well, the going theory is that there is a hot spot--a stationary plume of magma lurking under the earth’s crust. The earth’s crust moves. But the magma is stationary. So as the crust moves, new areas move over the magma and new volcanoes and, eventually, islands, are formed. Follow the chain of the Hawaiian Islands and you will see the movement of the earth’s crust! Because the crust moves, each island is a different age and at different stage of volcano development, thus allowing for 11 of the 13 major climate zones in the world.

Note how more and more of the island is underwater as you look more North West

The age of the islands drastically effect the topography, it’s easiest to understand this concept from youngest to oldest.

The Big Island is still in it’s shield building stage (just under a million years old) with two active volcanoes continuing the island’s growth, the island itself has had little time to evolve with it reflecting a rather loosely defined dome shape. Maui, Lanai, and Molokai were all actually one island at a time and are roughly about the same age (a little under 2 million years old), the ocean between the three islands is consider to be shallow at about a depth of 600 feet. Because of the 1 million year age difference, the three islands are farther along in volcano development thus the tremendous weight of the island has forced the earth crust down causing the the islands to slowly sink. The Big Island & Maui both house well defined mountains with elevations of over 9000 feet.

Now the transition from the newer islands to the older islands is where the picture starts to become more clear. Oahu and Kauai are the two oldest islands in the main island chain which have had almost twice the amount of time to develop, both islands topography is drastically different as a result. The mountains and valleys on these two islands are a lot steeper because over time wind, water, and erosion have had time to eat away at the mountain. For example, Kauai houses a valley that looks like mini Grand Canyon which has been allowed to develop over its 5 million years of existence. The valleys of Maui and the Big Island are nowhere near as defined as Kauai’s Waimea Canyon.

The remoteness of the Hawaiian islands has had several interesting consequences for the islands’ ecosystems.

Life on the islands evolved for 70M years in absence of humans. Very few land-based species were able to cross the vast distance and reach the islands in safety. In fact, for the first millions of years of the islands’ existence, there were no mammals or reptiles at all on the islands–and so they became an almost mystical haven for birds. The primary herbivore was a flightless waterfowl, the moa nalos. The primary predators were eagle, hawk, and owl species.

Over 90% of Hawaii’s native species are endemic–meaning that they are found nowhere else on earth! Unfortunately over 75% of the extinctions that have occurred in the US have occurred in Hawaii.

We must all work to preserve what is left of our beautiful native animals.

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Aloha,