Hawaii is known for its beautiful beaches - some of them with unusual colors. Many beaches are filled with white sand, but other Hawaiian shores are covered with green, red, pink, and even black sand. Whether you like hiking, biking, kayaking, sailing, swimming, or just sitting on the beach, Hawaii is the state for you.

The Hawaiian Islands were formed by such a hot spot occurring in the middle of the Pacific Plate. While the hot spot itself is fixed, the plate is moving. So, as the plate moved over the hot spot, the string of islands that make up the Hawaiian Island chain were formed.

The US state of Hawaii is an island group located in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, about 4,400 km (2,800 mi) south of Alaska, and 4,200 km (2,600 mi) north of Tahiti (French Polynesia).

The Hawaiian Islands were formed by a volcanic hot spot, an upwelling plume of magma, that creates new islands as the Pacific Plate moves over it.

Also known as “The Big Island,” Hawaii Island is over 4,000 square miles and encompasses 63 percent of the Hawaiian archipelago's combined landmass and is the largest island in the United States. The island has five volcanoes, including sacred dormant volcano Mauna Kea.

What is Hawaii famous for? 14 things fully explained

• Surf and Surf culture.
• Pearl Harbor attack.
• Luau.
• Lei.
• Hula.
• Aloha shirts.
• Beaches.
• Volcanoes.

As a crustal tectonic plates move over hot spots mantle material upwells and erupts on the surface of the plate to form a volcano, seamount or volcanic island. The islands and seamounts of the Hawaiian Archipelago were created by a hot spot under the Pacific Plate that has been active for the past 41 million years.

The volcanic island chain was born when the Pacific tectonic plate drifted over a hotspot in Earth's mantle. Tags: geology, news.

5 Facts about Hawaii

• It is the home of a 70-mile-wide volcano.
• It is where Captain James Cook met his unfortunate end.
• It is the most isolated island chain on Earth.
• Its unique language is comprised of a 12-letter alphabet.
• It is plastic-free.

Quirky Fun Facts about Hawaii

• There are just 13 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet.
• The Hawaii state fish is the Humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa.
• Hawaii boasts the only royal palace in the US.
• You can mail a coconut anywhere in the world from Hawaii.
• It's illegal for buildings on Kauai to be taller than a palm tree.

The Hawaiian Islands are only the tops of great mountains that reach deep into the sea. This chain of shield volcanoes has been built up by repeated eruptions of magma from a hot spot deep within the mantle of the Earth over millions of years.

A hot spot is an intensely hot area in the mantle below Earth's crust. The heat that fuels the hot spot comes from very deep in the planet. This heat causes the mantle in that region to melt. The molten magma rises up and breaks through the crust to form a volcano.