<p>Hawaii s a chain island made of various continuous eruptions. It's like a conveyor belt. As the hotspot deposited lava cooling under the sea..... the island would form.....as the Pacific plate moved....the hot spot remains in position and starts over. Some mountains never made it to the surface.... Hawaiian chain is over 26 million years old.....but its youngest island is only half a million.....and 2600 miles if islands that after millions of years eroded into the small atolls [midway, etc.] You see now.
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/N9sZT.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/N9sZT.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-14T21:30:30.707Z
2022-03-16T04:55:36.163Z
2022-03-16T04:55:36.163Z
LazyReader
<p>My understanding is that the Hawaiian islands were produced as the Pacific plate moved over a stationary hot spot, which sent magma burning up through the plate as it passed over, forming a trail of volcanic islands on top.</p>

<p>But why dots instead of a line? In other words, why did that process produce islands instead of a continuous piece of land? Does the rising magma start and stop periodically?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-05-05T02:24:18.367Z
This is a comment rather than an answer because answers should have references. The Earth's crust is a bit tough, but once magma has found a path through it, that pathway remains weak for a good amount of time, even between periods of eruptions. The same applies to the upper mantle. (It is erroneous to think of the Earth's mantle as being molten. It is mostly solid rock.) So once the elastoplastic material that forms the hot spot proper finds a way through the upper mantle, that will remain the preferred pathway for a very good amount of time.
David Hammen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-05-05T02:30:04.443Z
Whether the hot spot moves or is stationary (with respect to what?) remains a bit of an enigma. What is known is that there has been and still exists relative motion between the crust and the hot spot location. As the Pacific Plate moves relative to the hot spot, old pathways to the surface that were at one time directly over the hot spot eventually become tortuous paths. The magma finds less tortuous paths, and these eventually become new shield volcanos. The space between the old and new shield volcanos just happened to be on a non-path to the surface.
David Hammen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-15T13:40:03.453Z
@DavidHammen I like to imagine hot spot motion as analogous to the plasma stream "lightning" in a plasma globe.
Spencer
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-16T00:19:03.917Z
"because some of it is underwater"
naught101
<plate-tectonics><hotspot>
Why aren't the Hawaiian islands a continuous strip of land?
Nathan Long
# Why aren't the Hawaiian islands a continuous strip of land?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-05-04)

My understanding is that the Hawaiian islands were produced as the Pacific plate moved over a stationary hot spot, which sent magma burning up through the plate as it passed over, forming a trail of volcanic islands on top.

But why dots instead of a line? In other words, why did that process produce islands instead of a continuous piece of land? Does the rising magma start and stop periodically?

**Tags:** plate-tectonics, hotspot

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: This is a comment rather than an answer because answers should have references. The Earth's crust is a bit tough, but once magma has found a path through it, that pathway remains weak for a good amount of time, even between periods of eruptions. The same applies to the upper mantle. (It is erroneous to think of the Earth's mantle as being molten. It is mostly solid rock.) So once the elastoplastic material that forms the hot spot proper finds a way through the upper mantle, that will remain the preferred pathway for a very good amount of time.  
> **username_1**: Whether the hot spot moves or is stationary (with respect to what?) remains a bit of an enigma. What is known is that there has been and still exists relative motion between the crust and the hot spot location. As the Pacific Plate moves relative to the hot spot, old pathways to the surface that were at one time directly over the hot spot eventually become tortuous paths. The magma finds less tortuous paths, and these eventually become new shield volcanos. The space between the old and new shield volcanos just happened to be on a non-path to the surface.  
> **username_2**: @username_1 I like to imagine hot spot motion as analogous to the plasma stream "lightning" in a plasma globe.  
> **username_3**: "because some of it is underwater"  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2022-03-14. Score: 0

Hawaii s a chain island made of various continuous eruptions. It's like a conveyor belt. As the hotspot deposited lava cooling under the sea..... the island would form.....as the Pacific plate moved....the hot spot remains in position and starts over. Some mountains never made it to the surface.... Hawaiian chain is over 26 million years old.....but its youngest island is only half a million.....and 2600 miles if islands that after millions of years eroded into the small atolls [midway, etc.] You see now.
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/N9sZT.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/N9sZT.png)


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