"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Sitting on the Hot Seat

Which is where Hawai'i is -- it's on top of a hot spot in the earth's crust. You can tell the direction of the Pacific plate's movement by looking at a map of the islands. The hot spot is stationary -- and it's been there for a while.



The map:


I like this one because it shows the portions of the Islands that are below sea level -- they're actually the tops of undersea mountains, which is what islands tend to be. And you can see to the northwest of the existing islands the older ones that have eroded down.

It's all pretty awesome.

(The map is from the National Benthic Survey, which looks totally fascinating itself.)

(And here's an article on the birth of an undersea mountain.)

Maybe I'll just spend the rest of the day poking around NOAA's websites.

2 comments:

Nigel said...

Fascinating. How unimportant we are in the scheme of things!

Hunter said...

I can think of a few people who should look at something like this and spend some time thinking about their relative importance in the universe.