The true size of Hawaii: far more than 8 islands

Transcript

We usually see Hawaii like this. Eight main islands, four bigger, and four slightly smaller. And compared to the mainland, it looks pretty small. But the state of Hawaii is actually much bigger than that. It stretches far to the northwest and includes 137 volcanic islands and atolls, which together form the 1,500 mile long Hawaiian archipelago. And this is what Hawaii officially looks like. If you placed it over the mainland, it would stretch roughly from California to Texas. But even this is only what we see above the surface, because all of these islands are just the peaks of an enormous volcanic chain rising from the ocean floor. It was created by the Hawaiian hotspot, a source of volcanic activity beneath the Pacific Plate. The hotspot itself stays almost still, while the tectonic plate is always moving, which is how the Hawaiian archipelago formed over millions of years. Because the Pacific Plate is moving northwest, those eight main Hawaiian islands are the youngest part of the chain. And one of the oldest atolls in the Hawaiian archipelago is Midway Atoll, formerly a US military base and the site of one of the most famous battles of World War II in the Pacific. Interestingly, Midway Atoll is not part of the state of Hawaii, but is a separate US territory, and today serves as an emergency landing site for trans-Pacific flights.

Transcribed automatically from the video, so small errors are possible.