Hawaii

Hawaii is a chain of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is also the 50th state of the United States. The chain has eight main islands and more than 100 smaller ones. The biggest island is called Hawaii, but people often call it the Big Island so it is not mixed up with the state. Other major islands include Maui, Oahu, Kauai, and Molokai. The state capital, Honolulu, sits on Oahu.

Hawaii is one of the most remote places on Earth. The islands are about 2,400 miles from California, the nearest mainland. That is farther than the distance across the whole continental United States. A plane ride from Los Angeles to Honolulu takes about six hours.

Every island in Hawaii was built by a volcano. Deep under the Pacific, there is a "hot spot" where melted rock pushes up through the ocean floor. As the Pacific plate slowly slides over the hot spot, new volcanoes form, grow into islands, and then drift away. Kauai, on one end of the chain, is about five million years old. The Big Island, still over the hot spot, is less than one million years old and still growing. Its volcano Kilauea has been erupting off and on for decades. A brand new Hawaiian island, called Kamaʻehuakanaloa, is forming under the water right now. It should reach the surface in about 10,000 to 100,000 years.

People first reached Hawaii by canoe. Polynesian sailors traveled thousands of miles across open ocean to find the islands. Scientists once thought they arrived around 300 CE, but newer studies suggest it was closer to 1000 to 1200 CE. How they navigated without maps or compasses amazes researchers. They read the stars, the ocean swells, and the flight paths of birds.

For hundreds of years, Hawaii was ruled by its own chiefs and kings. King Kamehameha I united all the islands under one kingdom in 1810. In 1893, a group of American businessmen overthrew Queen Liliuokalani with help from U.S. Marines. The United States took over the islands in 1898. Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959. Many Native Hawaiians still believe the overthrow was wrong, and there is an active movement today that seeks to restore Hawaiian independence or self-rule.

Hawaii is also a place of incredible nature. It has rainforests, black sand beaches, and giant sea cliffs. Mauna Kea, measured from its base on the ocean floor, is taller than Mount Everest. Many plants and animals in Hawaii, such as the nene goose and the silversword plant, live nowhere else on Earth.