Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain
Overview
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
, consisting of the islands of the Hawaiian chain northwest to Kure Atoll
Kure Atoll
Kure Atoll or Ocean Island is an atoll in the Pacific Ocean beyond Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands at . The only land of significant size is called Green Island and is habitat for hundreds of thousands of seabirds...
, and the Emperor Seamounts, a vast underwater mountain region of islands and intervening seamount
Seamount
A seamount is a mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the water's surface , and thus is not an island. These are typically formed from extinct volcanoes, that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from a seafloor of depth. They are defined by oceanographers as...
s, atoll
Atoll
An atoll is a coral island that encircles a lagoon partially or completely.- Usage :The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu OED...
s, shallows, banks and reefs along a line trending southeast to northwest beneath the northern Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
. The seamount chain, containing over 80 identified undersea volcanoes, stretches over 5800 kilometres (3,604 mi) from the Aleutian Trench
Aleutian Trench
The Aleutian Trench is a subduction zone and oceanic trench which runs along the southern coastline of Alaska and the adjacent waters of northeastern Siberia off the coast of Kamchatka Peninsula. It is classified as a "marginal trench" in the east as it runs along the margin of the continent, and...
in the far northwest Pacific to the Loʻihi seamount
Loihi Seamount
Lōihi Seamount is an active undersea volcano located around off the southeast coast of the island of Hawaii about below sea level. It lies on the flank of Mauna Loa, the largest shield volcano on Earth...
, the youngest volcano in the chain, which lies about 35 kilometres (21.7 mi) southeast of the Island of Hawaiʻi
Hawaii (island)
The Island of Hawaii, also called the Big Island or Hawaii Island , is a volcanic island in the North Pacific Ocean...
.
