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The name "Hawai'i" is possibly based on the native Hawaiian word for homeland (Owhyhee). Captain James Cook discovered the islands in 1778 and named the group "The Sandwich Islands."
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The kukui tree (Aleurites Moluccana) was designated the...
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Hawaii's state nickname is "The Aloha State" (legislation...
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The State of Hawaii derives its name from the name of its largest island, Hawaiʻi. A common explanation of the name of Hawaiʻi is that it was named for Hawaiʻiloa , a figure from Hawaiian oral tradition.
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Hawaii, constituent state of the United States of America. Hawaii (Hawaiian: Hawai‘i) became the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959. Hawaii is a group of volcanic islands in the central Pacific Ocean. The islands lie 2,397 miles (3,857 km) from San Francisco, California, to the east and 5,293 miles (8,516 km) from Manila, in the Philippines, to the west. The capital is Honolulu, located on the island of Oahu.
Hawaii was characterized by Mark Twain as “the loveliest fleet of islands that lies anchored in any ocean.” The name is thought to derive from Hawaiki, the former name of Raiatea, the ancestral home of Polynesians.
The land area of the state of Hawaii consists of the tops of a chain of emerged volcanic mountains that form 8 major islands and 124 islets, stretching in a 1,500-mile (2,400-km) crescent from Kure Island in the west to the island of Hawaii in the east. The eight major islands at the eastern end of the chain are, from west to east, Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Maui, and Hawaii. Each volcanic mountain formed during the transit of the Pacific Plate across a hotspot (a region of Earth’s upper mantle that upwells to melt through the crust) located beneath the central Pacific Ocean, and erupting magma added mass to the crust above.
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The origin of Hawaii’s islands, islets, and seamounts can be traced to at least 70 million years ago, near the end of the Cretaceous Period (145 million to 66 million years ago). Volcanic activity has become dormant, with the exception of the emergent volcanoes of Mauna Loa, Kilauea, and the Lō‘ihi Seamount. Mauna Loa and Kilauea are located on the easternmost and largest island, Hawaii (often referred to as the “Big Island”), where spectacular eruptions and lava flows take place from time to time. The Lō‘ihi Seamount, a growing volcano that could break the surface of the ocean tens of thousands of years from the present, is located 18.6 miles (30 km) southeast of the island of Hawaii. The highest Hawaiian mountains are Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, both on the island of Hawaii, reaching 13,796 feet (4,205 metres) and 13,678 feet (4,169 metres) above sea level, respectively.
There has been little erosion in the geologically young areas, where the terrain is domelike or scattered with hardened lava, and the volcanic craters are clearly defined. In the older areas the mountains have been shaped and eroded by sea, rain, and wind. Their aspects thus include sharp and craggy silhouettes; abrupt, vertically grooved cliffs pocked with caves; deep valleys; collapsed craters (calderas); and coastal plains. The powerful Pacific surf, churning and crashing against the fringing coral shelves and the lava shorelines, has carried minute shells onto the shore and reduced coral and large shells to sand, creating the state’s famous expanses of beach.
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Because the topography of Hawaii is generally abruptly descending or sloping, there are few surfaces that collect water. Excess rainfall seeps through porous mountain areas to gather in subterranean chambers and layers retained by less-permeable lava and ash beds, or it is prevented by underlying salt water from seeping to the sea. The resultant ar...
As a result of the weathering of basaltic lava and volcanic ash, Hawaii is rich in arable soils. Given local conditions, with variations in rainfall and organic matter, the islands contain a wide variety of soils. Of these the most significant are the andisols and mollisols that are the product of lava flows that occurred more than 3,000 years ago ...
May 17, 2024 · The official nickname of Hawaii is “The Aloha State.” The nickname was officially adopted by in 1959 by its legislature, which was coincidentally the same year Hawaii was adopted as a state in the US.
The history of Hawaii is the story of human settlements in the Hawaiian Islands. Polynesians arrived sometime between 940 and 1200 AD. [1] [2] Kamehameha I, the ruler of the island of Hawaii, conquered and unified the islands for the first time, establishing the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1795. [3]
Jan 1, 2017 · This brief article explored three possible explanations of how the Hawaiian Islands got their name. Although Captain Cook famously ‘discovered’ Hawaii, research proves that there is much more to the Hawaiian story than this commonly parroted narrative.
1,500 years ago: Polynesians arrive in Hawaiʻi after navigating the ocean using only the stars to guide them. 1778: Captain James Cook lands at Waimea Bay on the island of Kauaʻi, becoming the first European to make contact with the Hawaiian Islands. Cook names the archipelago the “Sandwich Islands” after the Earl of Sandwich.
