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The Hawaii hotspot is perhaps the best known volcanic hotspot on Earth, responsible for the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
The Hawaii hotspot is the most famous and well-studied hotspot in the world, and in fact it is from data gathered at the Hawaii chain that in 1963 J. Tuzo Wilson, the Canadian geophysicist who discovered transform faults, brainstormed the "hotspot" theory. The amount of lava erupted from the hotspot is estimated to be roughly 750,000 cubic kilometers, enough to easily cover the state of California with a lava blanket about 1.5 kilometres (1 mi) thick. Hawaiian volcanoes drift northwest from the hotspot at a rate of about 10 cm (3.9 in) a year. At this rate, about 40 million years ago, Kure and Midway atolls were where the present island of Hawaii is now. The oldest volcano in the chain, Meiji Seamount, is dated to 82 million years; however, it is also speculated over that the hotspot is older, with older seamount destroyed by the grinding of plates on the margin between the Pacific Plate and Eurasian Plate. |
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Hello. My name is Resident Mario, and I live in New York City. I edit primarily Volcanology articles, most specifically articles about underwater volcanoes and volcanoes in Hawaii. I enjoy membership in the Volcano, Seamount, Military History, and GAN wikiprojects, although most of my contributions filter through the first two. In so-called real life, I am interested in many things, among them science, history, tennis, linguistics, and maybe even a little bit of math. I play tennis as a hobby sport. My current big project is the Volcanism of Hawaii Workgroup, which is geared towards getting a FT for the volcanoes of the island of Hawaii. Sci Tool Reasearch
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