Hawaii, volcanic origin and climate of pacific islands and

There is a large variety of islands in the Pacific.  Although they have a wide range of marked differences today, many of them have similar origins and are simply at difference places in their evolution.  You can take the Hawaiian islands as a perfect example.  You start our with a "hotspot" volcano which starts at the bottom of the ocean, slowly building through time.  These don't always reach a height to emerge into an island but obviously they did in the case of the islands we see on our map.


Some of the islands are newer and are still in the process of building, some have grown older and have a fringe of coral reef around them and some have been weathered down to the point that there is only the fringe of reef left.  These kinds of islands are the ones with a very low elevation and thus are very susceptible to flooding from storms, tsunami's or any ocean elevation change.


Although pictures you see from tropical islands like Hawaii often make it seem like a tropical paradise perfect for agriculture, often you can have a giant rain shadow effect where all of the rain is on one side of the island and you can have vast parts which are comparatively desolate.  I will show you some photos from my drive around the main island from the wet side to the dry side to give you an idea of the changes and limitations to agriculture. 




Sorry, some of those seem to have gotten slightly out of order but you see the point I am trying to make.  If you look at the map, you can see that very large parts of the island are very desolate.  I would describe the ground as if you are walking on giant sheets of glass that can break under your feet and are very sharp and dangerous to traverse. 

There are also plenty of other environmental concerns in the area, there has been an increase in pollution including great giant patches, the threat of tsunami's and general beach erosion.  You see these black lines on the beaches?  Those are an attempt to stop beaches from washing away, usually put in by the tourist industry with mixed success.  








To wrap up, looking at a couple of the maps above you can see how much trade has changed from being predominately in the Atlantic Ocean to now being primarily in the Pacific Ocean.  This has greatly increased the interaction and travel to islands there, including the tourism and unfortunate garbage that accumulates.  There have been some efforts towards a more sustainable ecotourism, with mixed results.  Tourism is a fickle industry and an economic downturn or to pick an example at random, global pandemic, can really leave tourist heavy island high and dry.  Many of these islands were pushed to rely on tourism as a way to pay off international debts with international traveler currencies spent while on trips.  It will be interesting to see how this, and trade in the region evolves going forward.