Hawaii Is Much Bigger Than You Think 🌋 The Secret Hidden Islands 🏝️

Transcript

00:00Not all Americans know that Hawaii is actually way bigger than it seems.

00:04We're used to seeing Hawaii like this, four bigger islands and four slightly smaller,

00:09which compared to the mainland, seem quite tiny.

00:11But in reality, the Hawaiian archipelago stretches far beyond the usual eight islands.

00:17It actually includes about 137 volcanic islands and atolls and spans nearly 1,600 miles.

00:24We only see the tip of the iceberg as a significant part of Hawaii is hidden underwater

00:29because all the islands were formed by the Hawaiian hotspot,

00:33a source of volcanic activity located beneath the tectonic plate.

00:36This hotspot is almost stationary, unlike the Pacific plate,

00:40which has been drifting northwest for millions of years.

00:43This movement created the entire Hawaiian archipelago,

00:46with the western part being the oldest and the eastern part, those eight islands, being the youngest.

00:51Interestingly, one of the oldest atolls, Midway, was once a U.S. military base

00:56and now serves as an emergency landing site for trans-Pacific flights.