The Hawaiian islands are located 2,000 miles southwest of the USA. Hawaii is made up of eight main islands ,seven of them are inhabited. 


The Hawaiian islands were formed by volcanic activity undersea this is known as a hotspot. The earths tectonic plates in the pacific Ocean moved millions of years ago, the hotspot stayed in the same place which created new islands in a chain,because there was a hotspot it means that all the islands were volcanic at one stage but now only the island of Hawaii also known as the "Big island"  is volcanic because its the closest to the hotspot. At the moment a new island is forming it is called "Loihi seamount" its forming off the southcoast of the big island.
  

There are also more than 100 small rocky islets that are a part of Hawaii, most of them are found along coastal and mountain plains. Kauai has rugged mountains that go right up the coast, Oahu is divided by mountains and also has flat areas.