According to the theory of seafloor spreading, oceanic islands, such as the hawaiian islands depicted in the figure, form as oceanic crustal plates move over a stationary hot spot in the mantle. currently, the big island of hawaii is thought to be over a hot spot, which is why it is the only one of the seven large islands that has active volcanoes. what should be true of the island of hawaii?

Question: According to the theory of seafloor spreading, oceanic islands, such as the hawaiian islands depicted in the figure, form as oceanic crustal plates move over a stationary hot spot in the mantle. currently, the big island of hawaii is thought to be over a hot spot, which is why it is the only one of the seven large islands that has active volcanoes. what should be true of the island of hawaii?

If you are fascinated by volcanoes, you might want to visit the island of Hawaii, also known as the Big Island. It is the largest and youngest of the Hawaiian Islands, and it is home to five active volcanoes, including Kilauea, which has been erupting continuously since 1983. But how did these volcanoes form in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, far away from any tectonic plate boundaries?

The answer lies in the theory of seafloor spreading, which explains how new oceanic crust is created at mid-ocean ridges and moves away from them in opposite directions. As the oceanic crust moves, it carries the islands that form on it along with it. But where do the islands come from in the first place?

The theory of seafloor spreading also suggests that there are some places in the Earth's mantle, called hot spots, where hot plumes of magma rise up and break through the crust, creating volcanic islands. These hot spots are stationary, meaning they do not move with the plates. Therefore, as a plate moves over a hot spot, a chain of islands is formed, with the youngest and most active island being closest to the hot spot and the oldest and most eroded island being farthest away.

This is what happened with the Hawaiian Islands, which are part of a larger chain of volcanic islands and seamounts that stretches for thousands of kilometers across the Pacific Ocean. The Big Island of Hawaii is currently over the hot spot, which is why it has active volcanoes. The other islands are older and have moved away from the hot spot, so their volcanoes are extinct or dormant.

But what does this mean for the future of the island of Hawaii? According to the theory of seafloor spreading, we can expect that:

- The island will continue to grow as new lava flows from its volcanoes add more land area.

- The island will eventually move away from the hot spot as the plate continues to move northwestward.

- A new island will form southeast of Hawaii as the plate moves over a new part of the hot spot.

- The island will experience earthquakes and landslides as the weight of the volcanoes causes the crust to bend and crack.

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