Talk:Hawaiian Islands

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Contents

[edit] Question

Does anyone know how many of the islands are actually inhabited? RickK 19:04, 2 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Yes I do. What is the question? Marshman 02:59, 3 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Could you include that information in the article? RickK 04:36, 4 Aug 2003 (UTC)
I essentially put the information in the list of islands. But if you think I need to make ity clearer, let me know. Marshman 08:09, 4 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Maybe I'm dense, but nothing in the article conveys that information to me. Why are you being so difficult? RickK 01:07, 5 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Smile when you say that partner 8^). Fortunately for you, I'm a Rick (actually Ric) also. But you are partly correct. I had failed to include a line to indicate that all islands in the first or upper list are inhabited (lower list states all listed are uninhabited). Two (one in each list) are exceptions in that they have facilities for habitation, but no permanent residents.Marshman 01:30, 5 Aug 2003 (UTC)


The link for "Gardner" is misleading (i.e. to nowhere)

It is. I will try and fix shortly. - Marshman 17:53, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Total number of Islands

When I was working in Hawaii a long time ago, I was administering a database of all islands and atolls. The database contained 132 total. The article claims there are 19 total. Because those numbers are practically a power of 10 off, I was wondering what source could be used to find the proper number of islands. Also, is it a range based on opinion. I can see one guy claiming, "That's an island." Then another guy says, "Nope, that's just a rock." Kainaw 20:59, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Answering my question... I continued further down the article and saw the entry about 137 islands. Of course, it came from the University, which is where the database of islands I was working on was located. Kainaw 21:01, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Probably from the state. The university should know better. The number of islands is infinite if you are going to start counting every "offshore" rock, which is what 137 is a good ways towards. Any such "listing" needs first a good set of definitions to have meaning. Maybe the data base did, but then

using the raw numbers is "out of context" - Marshman 03:32, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

is there a definition of the term island or islet that we can determine the minimum requirements to be called one of these things? I'm thinking of the stereotypical person stranded on a one-palm tree desert island that is only big enough to contain him and the tree. Would a rock count? would there need to be sand? Valley2city 17:41, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Length of the Island Chain

This needs to be fact checked, the only source i have for this being a nautical mile is that 1500*1.8 =~ 2700, but 1500*1.6 !=~ 2700, furthermore, the image I inserted is broken for unknown reasons.

According to Macdonald, Abbott, and Peterson (1983) the length of the archipelago is 2400 km, or 1500 miles (not nautical miles). - Marshman 18:55, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Plate moves how slowly?

My back of the envelope calculation shows about 50 miles/million-years: from Midway (28mya) to Kauai (5mya) at 1300 miles and from Kauai to Oahu (3mya) at about 100 miles. Anybody have a more accurate number? Jolomo

I suppose any number of papers will have estimates of what you are looking for; I'm not a geologist. However, I found this right away on the web at[1]:
"The NUVEL-IA predicted rate of motion of the Pacific plate relative to a fixed North American plate [-] 52 mm/yr".."
Not quite the motion over the hotspot (which may not be fixed), but works out to 52 km (32 miles) per million years, certainly not a bad fit to your estimate. - Marshman 23:34, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Information inappropriate

Try and put information in appropriate articles. The administration of Palmyra has nothing to do with the geography of the Hawaiian Islands. It is a fact already discussed elsewhere where appropriate. - Marshman 02:18, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Categorization

This article was placed in the Category:Human geography without explanation. Why this set of islands and not every other island in the world, say Tahiti or Greenland? The notion of human geography doesn't seem to be mentioned in the text of the article... -- Malepheasant 11:15, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument

Will information about this be added? Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument Badagnani 12:16, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Creation?

Does anyone know what created the volcano hotspot that created the hawaiian islands? Could it have been a comet or any other similar event? Thanks. AstroHurricane001(Talk+Contribs+Ubx) 14:28, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

The origin of hotspots is uncertain, but impacts are among the ideas. I'd say the idea of inhomogeneities within the mantle has a greater following, but this is not my specialty. Cheers Geologyguy 15:22, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Karakakooa Bay

I was editing an article on the ship Tonquin and discovered they had put in at the above bay. But I can't find it anywhere, and I'm guessing the spelling is wrong anyway. Anybody know what bay this might be? Thanks. Aboutmovies 01:48, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Likely to be Kealakekua Bay, the same bay Cook visited. Arjuna 08:12, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Geology/USGS

The 17km stated by the USGSseem to result from a wrong addition. The mountain measures about 9km from sea-floor to summit, 4km above an 5km below sea-level. AFAIK one cannot add the 8km depression, since the whole mountain itself is depressed with the tectonic plate. --mmg 10:47, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Photograph

The NASA photograph is horrible. It just looks like a big black rectangle. I really think we should get rid of it. It's tacky. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.95.64.254 (talk) 18:54, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

I added a note to click on the image for a larger view. If that is OK, then leave it. Otherwise, I'm not emotionally attached to the image in any way. -- kainaw™ 22:21, 26 September 2007 (UTC)