Type “Hawaii†into the search bar of Google Earth and examine the chain of Hawaiian Islands. On a separate sheet of paper please draw yourself a map of the islands and label the following on your map (making sure to include the names), which will be used to answer the following questions.
Islands to include:
Big Island, Maui, Kauai, Nihoa (23 03 32.79N 161 55 11.94W)
a. Put a North arrow on your map. b. Label the ages of each of the islands determined by radiometric dating of the lava.
Big Island- 0 (active), Maui – 1.1 million, Kauai- 4.7 million, Nihoa- 7.2 million years
a. Place a dot at the center of each island and measure on Google earth the distance between the center of an island and its adjacent island in centimeters (for example measure the distance between the center of the Big Island and Maui). b. Look closely at each island in Google Earth and record their maximum elevation in centimeters. Remember elevation can be found by placing your cursor over a point and reading the elevation on the lower right of the image by the latitude and longitude. The elevation will be given in meters, but can be converted to centimeters by multiplying by 100. (Hint: tilting the image of the island will help to find the highest point.
……………………………………..
How fast was the Pacific plate moving during the last 1.1 million years between the formation of the Big Island and Maui in cm/year? To calculate this divide the distance (in centimeters) between the two islands by the difference in their ages. Please show all your calculations including unit conversions.
……………………………
How fast was the Pacific plate moving from 7.2 million years ago to 4.7 million years ago between the formation of Kauai and Nihoa in cm/year? To calculate this divide the distance (in centimeters) between the two islands by the difference in their ages. Please show all your calculations including unit conversions.
Sample Solution