1) Where Hawaii is located?Hawaii is a set of islands located in an archipelago, consisting of the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia.
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| Example of volcanic mountains |
There are cracks deep in the ocean which has magma in it. The magma will flow out and will freeze to form a small volcano. As more magma comes out, the volcano will eventually become bigger. The volcanoes will rise an average of 4,572 meters (15,000 feet) to reach sea level from their base on the sea floor above sea level to form the island. After the volcanoes reach the surface, they are subjected to the effects of erosion. When the top is completely worn away, it leaves a shoal cutting across the volcanic cone several fathoms below sea level. Eruptions in the Hawaiian volcanoes are usually preceded by a series of earthquakes which open fissures and allow magma to reach the surface. Great floods of lava will then flow down the mountainside. Eruptions have lasted from a few days to ten months, frequently followed in two or three years by a flank eruption. As magma is released from the vent, lava flows along Earth's surface and eventually takes one of two contrasting but related forms which Hawaiians have named pahoehoe. Pahoehoe is formed as a layer of "skin" covers the underlying liquid lava and the movement of the continued lava flow below begins to wrinkle the surface creating a ropy or billowy appearance. This is how the volcanoes are formed.
3) What are the types of volcanoes on Hawaii?
These are the most recognizable volcanoes - composite volcano, cinder cone volcano and the shield volcano. Let me talk about composite volcanoes first . Composite volcano is a huge, menacing conical mountain that explodes and spews out masses of lava which falls on rampaging dinosaurs, screaming cave people, or fleeing mobs of be-togaed Romans--depending on their favorite volcano disaster movie. While those types of volcanoes do indeed exist, they represent only one "species" in a veritable zoo of volcano shapes and sizes.
Next, the cinder cone volcano. They consist almost entirely of loose, grainy cinders and almost no lava. They are small volcanoes, usually only about a mile across and up to about a thousand feet high. They have very steep sides and usually have a small crater on top.
This type of volcano can be hundreds of miles across and many tens of thousands of feet high. The individual islands of the state of Hawaii are simply large shield volcanoes. Mauna Loa, a shield volcano on the "big" island of Hawaii, is the largest single mountain in the world, rising over 30,000 feet above the ocean floor and reaching almost 100 miles across at its base. Shield volcanoes have low slopes and consist almost entirely of frozen lavas. They almost always have large craters at their summits.
Calderas, which are simply circular depressions, are found on the summits of many volcanoes. "Giant" calderas are the largest of these: huge craters up to many tens of miles across. Giant Calderas form by collapse (see animation) in gigantic eruptions that spew volcanic rocks out hundreds or even a thousand miles in all directions. Sometimes the calderas are so filled with lava and volcanic ash that there is no recognizable depression at all. These can only be found by carefully locating the big fractures or "faults" in the ground that mark the edges of the caldera.
In a fissure volcano, there is no central crater at all. Instead, giant cracks open in the ground and expel vast quantities of lava that spread far and wide to form huge pools that can cover almost everything around. When these pools of lava cool and solidify, the surface remains mostly flat. Since the source cracks are usually buried, there is often nothing "volcano-like" to see--only a flat plain.
4) Is it safe or dangerous to go to Hawaii?
- Final Answer : Its dangerous.
Reason :
-The most active volcano on Hawaii is 'Kilauea Volcano'.
-Kilauea Volcano is one of the five shield volcanoes that form the island of Hawaii.
-Kilauea volcano is actually one of the most active volcanoes on the planet.
-It is named after its frequent activity. Kilauea means ''spewed'' or "much spreading" in the Hawaiian
language, referring to its frequent outpouring of lava.
-Kilauea volcano has been continuously erupting in the eastern rift-zone since 1983.
- Recently in Hawaii, lava from Kilauea volcano reached another Kalapana Gardens home, sparking a fire
that completely engulfed the structure.
Therefore, concluding from all the research done by our group members, it is not safe to visit Hawaii because the Kilauea Volcano continues to erupt, almost all the time, with lava flowing out of it.
Bibliography
URLs ( World Wide Web ) : Calvin J.Hamilton (2009), Introduction to Hawaii Volcanoes,
Available: http://www.solarviews.com/eng/hawaii.htm
Mapquest (2006), Hawaii World Atlas, Available :
http://go.hrw.com/atlas/norm_htm/hawaii.htm
http://go.hrw.com/atlas/norm_htm/hawaii.htm
Gardens, Available:
http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/110929539.html
Wheeling Jesuit University/NASA-sponsored Classroom
of the Future (2011),Types of Volcano, Available:
http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/volcanoes/vtypesvolcan1.html
Wikipedia (2011), Hawaii, Available:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii
Wikipedia (2011), Kīlauea, Available:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kīlauea
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