Hawaii's Moving Hotspot

The Hawaiian chain is a geological time machine. Each island formed as the Pacific Plate drifted over a stationary mantle hotspot. The Big Island, currently sitting over the hotspot, is the youngest and most active.

Moving northwest, each island is progressively older and more eroded. Kauai, roughly 5 million years old, has had its peaks worn into dramatic valleys, and the islands farthest northwest have eroded down to low coral atolls. The plate keeps moving, and the hotspot keeps building the next island in line.