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Tectonic plates generally focus deformation and volcanism at plate boundaries.However, the Hawaii hotspot is more than 3,200 kilometers (1,988 mi) from the nearest plate boundary; [1] while studying it in 1963, Canadian geophysicist J. Tuzo Wilson proposed the hotspot theory to explain these zones of volcanism so far from regular conditions, [3] a theory that has since come into wide acceptance.
Unlike most active volcanoes in the Pacific Ocean that make up the active plate margins on the Pacific Ring of Fire, Kamaʻehuakanaloa and the other volcanoes of the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain are hotspot volcanoes and formed well away from the nearest plate boundary. Volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands arise from the Hawaii hotspot, and ...
Like all Hawaiian volcanoes, Kīlauea was formed as the Pacific tectonic plate moved over the Hawaiian hotspot in the Earth's underlying mantle. [12] Hawaii island volcanoes are the most recent evidence of this process that, over 70 million years, has produced the 6,000 km (3,700 mi)-long Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain. [13]
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park is a national park of the United States located in Hawaii on the island of Hawaii. The park encompasses two active volcanoes: Kīlauea , one of the world's most active volcanoes, and Mauna Loa , the world's largest shield volcano.
At that point, erosion of the volcano and subsidence of the seafloor cause the volcano to gradually diminish. As the volcano sinks and erodes, it first becomes an atoll island and then an atoll. Further subsidence causes the volcano to sink below the sea surface, becoming a seamount.
The volcanic system includes well-known landmarks of Honolulu such as Diamond Head, Koko Head, Punchbowl Crater, [3] Rabbit Island, Tantalus, [9] Hanauma Bay (notable as a snorkeling site) [10] and the Mokapu Peninsula, [11] which is the location of Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi. [12]
A hotspot's position on the Earth's surface is independent of tectonic plate boundaries, and so hotspots may create a chain of volcanoes as the plates move above them. There are two hypotheses that attempt to explain their origins. One suggests that hotspots are due to mantle plumes that rise as thermal diapirs from the core–mantle boundary. [2]
The Kīlauea Caldera (Hawaiian: Kaluapele [2]), officially gazetted as Kīlauea Crater, is a caldera located at the summit of Kīlauea, an active shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands. It has an extreme length of 2.93 mi (4.72 km), an extreme width of 1.95 mi (3.14 km), a circumference of 7.85 mi (12.63 km) and an area of 4.14 sq mi (10.7 km 2 ...