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As volcanic islands age, they gradually subside and erode. In fact, by comparing the ages of the volcanoes with their separations, geologists have concluded that the crust of the Pacific Ocean is moving at a rate of about 10 centimeters (4 inches) per year over the hot spot, or about one meter per decade.Īnother source of supporting evidence involved the elevations of the islands and seamounts. This pattern is exactly what had been predicted by the hypothesis that the volcanoes were created by the movement of the crust over a source of heat. To the northwest, the volcanoes are progressively older, with Suiko Seamount in the northern part of the chain having an age of 65 million years. The islands of Oahu and Kauai have greater ages, with the latter being about five million years old. The islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai, and Kahoolawe, which once were joined in a landmass known as Maui Nui, are the next older. These measurements showed that the Big Island of Hawaii, at the southeastern end of the archipelago, is the youngest of the chain, with an estimated age of less than half a million years ( Panel 1).
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The higher the ratio, the older the rock. To determine the age of a volcanic rock, scientists can measure the amount of argon and the amount of radioactive potassium in the rock. This potassium decays at a known and constant rate into argon, and the argon remains trapped in the rock. (Map reproduced by permission of Dynamic Graphics, Inc., Alameda, CA, USA, producer of EarthVision ® software, ©1984-2003 Dynamic Graphics.)įorm of the common element potassium. The maximum elevations of the Hawaiian islands gradually diminish from southeast to northwest, with the newest islands being the tallest. Eventually these erupting volcanoes grew large enough to rise above sea level and form islands (see Figure 5). This hot spot, as it came to be known, produced lava that erupted through the crust onto the ocean floor. He suggested that the islands formed as the crust of the Pacific Ocean floor moved over a source of heat positioned beneath the crust (see Figure 4). Tuzo Wilson proposed a hypothesis to explain the archipelago’s origins. What could account for this intriguing geological formation? Beyond Kure the chain continues underwater in the form of seamounts that rise above the ocean floor but no longer break the surface of the water. The Big Island of Hawaii (which is sometimes called just Hawaii) forms one end of a long straight archipelago of more than 100 islands, atolls, reefs, and shoals that extend to Kure Atoll (see Figure 3), a distance of more than 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles). For many years the geological history of the islands remained a mystery. The study of the origins of the Hawaiian islands provides an excellent example of how science works. Scientific Research Has Revealed How the Hawaiian Islands Originated It has proven tremendously successful in explaining the basis for observed phenomena and in allowing scientists to make predictions based on existing data. Evolutionary theory is a comprehensive explanation that integrates facts from many different areas of science. Without theories to explain and integrate them, facts become collections of unrelated observations. In other words, it is a phenomenon that has been observed so frequently that its existence is no longer being questioned.īecause theories explain facts, they embody a greater understanding of the natural world than do observations. This demand that a hypothesis be “falsifiable” is one of the defining characteristics of scientific explanations.Ī “fact,” in scientific terms, is an observation that has been repeatedly confirmed by the studies of different independent scientists. For a hypothesis to fall within the realm of science, it must be constructed in such a way that it potentially can be shown to be wrong-otherwise the hypothesis cannot be tested against evidence from the natural world. If the available evidence does not support a hypothesis, that hypothesis can be rejected, modified, or subjected to further testing. If a hypothesis is supported by the evidence, the hypothesis may contribute to more complex explanations, including theories. The scientist then would gather evidence to test that hypothesis. Evolution in Hawaii, a scientist might hypothesize that a species on one island is descended from a species on another island.