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Hawaii is made up of 137 islands, atolls and
reefs (Wikipedia).
The Windward (Southeastern) Islands are Niihau, Kauai,
Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Maui, Kahoolawe and Hawaii (Wikipedia).
The Leeward (Northwestern) Islands are Kaula, Nihoa, Necker,
French Frigate Shoals, Gardner Pinnacles, Maro Reef, Laysan, Lisianski, Pearl and Hermes Reef,
Midway and Kure. All islands except Midway are administered
as the State of Hawaii, the 50th in the United States (Wikipedia).
Hawaii is
also made up of five distinct volcanoes: Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, Kilauea, Kohala, and Hualalai.
All of the volcanoes are Shield Volcanoes, meaning they ooze constantly as opposed
to building pressure and eventually having an enormous explosion, like Mount St. Helens (Kassis).
“The chain of islands or archipelago formed as the
Pacific plate moves slowly northwestward over a hot spot in the earth’s crust. Hence the islands in the northwest of
the archipelago are older and typically smaller (have been eroding far longer). Hawaii (the
Big Island)
is the largest and youngest island in the chain...” “Mauna Kea, comprising over half of the Big Island, is considered
by some to be the highest mountain on the earth, the measurement from its base localling depressing the sea floor to its peak
being 56,000 feet (Wikipedia)."
“The Hawaiian Islands
are home to a large number of endemic species. The plant and animal life of the Hawaiian Islands
developed in nearly complete isolation over about 70 million years. Human contact, first by Polynesians and later by Europeans,
had a significant impact, driving many species to extinction. Today, many of the remaining endemic species are considered
endangered (Wikipedia)."
“The islands receive most rainfall from the trade
winds on their north and east flanks (windward side) as a result of orographic precipitation. Coastal areas in general and
especially the south and west flanks or leeward sides, tend to be drier. Because of the frequent build-up of Trade wind clouds
and potential showers, most tourist areas have been built on the leeward coasts of the islands (Wikipedia)."
“The hurricane season in
the Hawaiian Islands is roughly from June through November, when hurricanes and tropical
storms are most probable in the North Pacific. These storms tend to originate off the coast of Mexico
or Baja California and track west or northwest towards the
islands. Hawai‘i is protected by the vastness of the Pacific (i.e. the improbability of a direct hit); as storms cross
the Pacific they tend to lose strength if they bear northward and encounter cooler water. It is thought that the topography
of the highest islands (Haleakalā on Maui, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on the Big Island) may protect these islands, and
certainly Kaua‘i has been hit more often in the last 50 years than the others (Wikipedia)."
“The Hawaiian
islands can be affected by tsunamis, great waves that strike the shore typically but not exclusively from the
north. Tsunamis are movements of the surface layer of the ocean most often caused by earthquakes somewhere in the Pacific.
The city of Hilo on the Big Island has historically been most impacted by tsunamis, where the inrushing water is
accentuated by the shape of the bay in front of the town (Wikipedia)."
Sources:
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Islands#Climate
Kassis
Mrs. Kassis is Parker School's high school science department
teacher.
The current date and time in your time zone is:
This is the number of people who have visited this
site:
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| The Big Island. |
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| This map shows all the cities and areas on the Big Island. |
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| The Hibiscus is a flower native to Hawaii. |
Enan Eo
(The Marshallese phrase for "The Word.")
2/3/05 - I have not yet been able to resize all the pictures. I have however,
changed some wording and added some links on my Groovin' Links page. I have also decided to later add a page that links to
all of the work I've done in my Computer Graphics class. I have done some things with Flash, and have learned how to use HTML
coding etc...So I will add that page when I add my Math Doodles page. Oh, I also put captions in Emma's Yummy Paper Pulp page.
Now you can see what she's thinking!
1/31/05 - I haven't done much to the site after my last entry. Everything
in the last entry has been completed for some time now. I am near my storage limit, so I am playing with different programs
to resize the pictures to a much smaller size, so I can add lots more! I am going to make a picture page of the doodles I
do in math class (they're just too good not to publish), and maybe add more of my work on the My Work page. After looking
at my layout again, I'm contemplating rearranging some of the pictures on certain pages. Since my last entry, I have also
added a kitten to my family, so he will be put on the Meet the Menagerie page at some point. The key to all the work I want
to do though is to make all the pictures much smaller! They will appear to be the same size as you see them now, they will
just take up less space on my account here.
9/20/04 - I have done so much with this website lately, I'm so proud of
myself. I made the homepage have Hawaii stuff on it, and made Kwaj its own little page. I decided the Here I Are page was
insignificant, and I made that page into the My Work page. Some wording has been re-done or edited, and if you click any of
the pictures, a window will pop up and show a larger version of the picture. Last night I added some cool stuff like an MP3
search engine, an internet search engine, a form so you can send me info to my inbox, the date and time in your area, and
a place to recommend my site to a friend. I am going to do a few more things, I found out I can put music on my site, so you
can click the links and listen to my songs. I am going to work on doing that, and maybe putting a song on that plays on the
site (though I'm not sure about that, as I've been to sites that do that and found myself annoyed after looking over the site).
So that's about it for now. The site is almost done.
9/19/04 - I have been working on this site nightly the past week. Since
moving, the Big Island will be on my home page, and Kwaj will have it's own special page. I have added and deleted some photos,
made links to all the photos, added and deleted some pages, and added/deleted/changed wording. The majority of the work is
done, I just need to add text and some pictures. If I continue my current pace, the site will be completely redone this week.
We shall see.
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