First Activity in Science

9
Third Grading Period

Khryssdale S. Jacob [Course title]

Name: Khryssdale S. Jacob St. Camillus
Section:

Hot Spot: Student Readings

Moÿolelo o Mäui

One fine sunny day, Mäui and his

brothers went fishing. They paddled their
canoe far out to sea. Mäui took out his
special bone fishhook and prayed to the
gods to make it very powerful. The winds
blew softly around the canoe as it floated
over the rolling sea. The brothers patiently
waited for the fish to come.
They watched the sun climb higher
and higher in the sky. They grew tired.
Auwë!
Where were the fish? After many hours
had passed, the brothers decided to head
for home.
They were disappointed as they turned their
canoe around and paddled toward shore. After they had paddled for a while
they felt a strong pull on the canoe. Could they have caught a fish at
last? Perhaps Mäui’s special hook had brought him luck!
The brothers became very excited and paddled faster and faster.
Their arms grew tired. Whatever Mäui had caught was very strong and
very big! They began to wonder what could possibly be on Mäui’s hook.
They were frightened by the thought of a huge, powerful fish. They begged
Mäui to cut the fishing line, but Mäui refused and ordered his brothers to
look straight ahead and continue paddling.
It took all Mäui’s strength to hold on to the fishing line. His special
fishhook had not failed him. What a fish he must have! His tired brothers
no longer cared about the fish and wished Mäui would cut the line. With
aching arms, they kept on paddling and looked only to the front of the
canoe.
Mäui continued to pull on the line as hard as he could. But he soon
realized there was no fish on the end of the line—it was land! As he pulled,
he watched land rise slowly out of the sea! Mäui was filled with wonder and
excitement! With his powerful fishhook, he had caught a huge mass of
land. Never had he caught
anything so large! The brothers sensed Mäui’s excitement, but still they
looked only to the front of the canoe.
Finally, one of Mäui’s brothers could stand it no longer. His tired muscles
ached and he wanted to know what Mäui had caught. As he turned to look,
Mäui lost some of the catch! Instead of a great mass of land, all he had was
a group of islands. But what beautiful islands they were! And that, so the
legend says, is the way our Hawaiian Islands came to be.

Moÿolelo o Pele
Pele came to the Hawaiian Islands from a
faraway land. She had quarreled with her powerful
sister, Nämakaokahaÿi, a goddess of the sea. After
their quarrel, Pele left to find a new home.
Pele went to Niÿihau and dug a deep pit
in a mountaintop with her ÿöÿö. She created a
volcanic cone with a pit or crater inside it. She
liked the hot fires. But her sister, Nämaka, the
sea goddess, followed Pele and destroyed her
fiery home with the ocean waters.
Angrily, Pele fled to Kauaÿi. There
she used her ÿöÿö to dig a deep fiery pit.
But again,
the sea goddess followed her and put out the fire. Pele ran away to Oÿahu and
dug a new home there. But the sea goddess destroyed it. Pele angrily left
and tried
to make her home in a fiery pit on Molokaÿi. Again, her sister, the sea
goddess, destroyed it.
Pele fled to the island of Maui where she dug a deep fiery pit as her
new home. Her sister followed her and destroyed her home once again.
Pele was very angry and she and Nämaka had a bitter quarrel. Pele was
injured in the fight and left some of her bones on a hill in Häna. Nämaka
thought she had finally stopped the fire-making of her sister, but she learned
that the spirit of Pele had fled to the island of Hawaiÿi.
On Hawaiÿi, Pele, the volcano goddess, dug a deep, deep pit in the
center of Kïlauea. In this fiery pit, Pele still makes her home. The island
of Hawaiÿi continues to grow. Will the sea goddess catch up with Pele
once again?

Activity
Sheet
Hot Spot: Student Activity Sheet

1. Color the hot spot red, the Pacific plate brown, and the Hawaiian Islands green.
 2. Using the hot spot theory, describe how the Hawaiian Island chain was formed.

The structure of the Earth can be compared to a hard-boiled egg, where the yolk
represents the core, the albumen can be compared to the mantle, and the shell
approximates the Earth’s crust.
The Earth’s core is approximately 3,500 km (2,200 mi) thick and consists of an inner
core composed of solid iron and nickel and an outer core of NiFe alloy which is very
hot, with temperatures between 4,500° and 5,500° Celsius (8,132° and 9,932°
Fahrenheit) Surrounding the core is the solid rock of the mantle, about 2,900 km thick
(1,800 mi), where molten material exists in hot spots, subduction zones and spreading
centers.
The thin crust of the Earth is about 5–40 km (3–25 mi) thick. It is thicker beneath the
continents than the oceans. The Earth’s
lithosphere
(crust and uppermost mantle) is divided into large plates that fit together like a giant
puzzle. While they appear to be stationary, they are actually moving very slowly and
interacting in three ways: They spread apart at
mid-oceanic mountain and continental rifts; they collide (forming mountains or
bending
under one another); and 3) they grind past one another, such as along the San Andreas
fault in California.

The Earth’s outer crust is made up of a series of tectonic plates that move over the surface
of the planet. In areas where the plates come together, sometimes volcanoes will form.
Volcanoes can also form in the middle of a plate, where magma rises upward until it
erupts on the seafloor, at what is called a “hot spot.”
The Hawaiian Islands are located on the Pacific plate. According to the
hot spot theory, the shield volcanoes of the Hawaiian Islands are formed as the Pacific
plate moves over a stationary hot spot, located in the general area of the island of
Hawaiÿi. Over thousands of years, volcanoes erupting over the hot spot accumulate
enough mass to rise above sea level and become islands. As the plate moves to the
northwest, new islands form over the hot spot. In the simplest and strictest
explanation, the Pacific plate movement over a hot spot caused the formation of
volcanoes. The effect of this volcano formation is a chain of islands that extends from
the Löÿihi (Loihi) Seamount in a northwesterly direction to the oldest Emperor
Seamount. (According to my source, The Hawaiian Emperor seamount chain is a well-known
example of a large seamount and island chain created by hot-spot volcanism. Each island or
submerged seamount in the chain is successively older toward the northwest. Near Hawaii, the age
progression from island to island can be used to calculate the motion of the Pacific Oceanic plate
toward the northwest. The youngest seamount of the Hawaiian chain is Loihi, which presently is
erupting from its summit at a depth of 1000 meters.)
 3. How is the hot spot theory different from the Hawaiian mo‘olelo about the formation
of the Hawaiian Islands?

Both the hot spot theory and the mo’olelo explain how the Hawaiian islands came about.
However, just like any other historical account, these two have their differences from each other.
Moÿolelo are narratives about Hawaiian traditions and legends. These accounts about
the emergence of the Hawaiian island chains are more centered on the folklore or
religious beliefs of the Hawaiian race than on Scientific bases. According to some
Hawaiian moÿolelo, the Hawaiian Islands were formed when Mäui pulled them up with
his fish hook and secondary cones were formed when Pele dug them with her ÿöÿö
(digging stick). On the other hand, science says that it’s because of the plate
movement above a hot spot.
By examining the accounts, we would arrive to the conclusion that both of them state
how Hawaii came to be. The hot spot theory is accepted by most people since it
underwent countless observation, research and analyses before finally arranging the
thoughts into theory while the Mo’olelo is more likely to be accepted by the
inhabitants of the area or a small group of people who acknowledge it as a reliable
narrative explaining the origin of their land.
4. How is the hot spot theory similar to the Hawaiian mo‘olelo about the formation
of the Hawaiian Islands?
The hot spot theory and the mo’olelos of Maui and Pele, though distinct in terms of scientific
accuracy, agree on the same idea that Hawaii began in some time and place. However, if we are
going to compare these legends from the hot spot theory in the strictest sense, it would be more
accurate to differentiate the narrative about Pele’s new home from the hot spot theory as there
are similar characteristics between the two. The commonality I spotted in these two accounts is
the presence of lava and volcanic eruption leading to the formation of the Hawaiian Islands.
Recalling, the hot spot theory points out that the shield volcanoes of the Hawaiian Islands are
formed as the Pacific plate moves over a stationary hot spot, located in the general area of the
island of Hawaiÿi. Over thousands of years, volcanoes erupting over the hot spot accumulate
enough mass to rise above sea level and become islands. This explanation has undergone
scientific process before finally being passed on as a credible and reliable source of information. In
spite of this, we read that the story of Pele narrates the volcano goddess, dug a deep, deep pit in the
center of Kïlauea. In this fiery pit, she still makes her home and the island of Hawaiÿi continues to grow. Yes, it
may not be credible, but this legend could indirectly help us to understand the theory better by means of
examination, comparison and synopsis.
I therefore conclude that even though the two accounts do not agree with each other in terms of scientific accuracy,
both narrate how volcanoes lead to the formation of the Hawaiian Island Chains. One advances the argument that
the movement of Pacific plates caused the formation of volcanoes in which over thousands of years, accumulate
enough mass to rise above sea level and become islands. The other is an oral tradition that
narrates that the fire goddess dug deep to construct a home for herself in the center of Kilauea
which lead to the progression of islands.