Preannouncement - let's fly to Hawaii!
Map: Google
Translation: Liis
Looduskalender has the idea to arrange a longer excursion to Hawaii in March next year for nature-interested people, in co-operation with Estravel. Our guides would be Ruth Aguraiuja from Tallinn Botanic Garden (TBA), who has been carrying out scientific investigations in the area for ten years, Aleksei Turovski, who will give us an idea of the zoology in the area, and most probably other interesting specialists on various subjects who will join the excursion. At the end of today’s introduction there are links to satisfy some of your curiosity.
Towards the end of September there will be more information about our partners, and more interesting information. So – wishing all an enjoyable pastime for the dark autumn evenings!
Towards the end of September there will be more information about our partners, and more interesting information. So – wishing all an enjoyable pastime for the dark autumn evenings!
Text: Ruth Aguraiuja, TBA
In films, TV, and tourist commercials the Hawaii Islands have an image of islands made up of only coconut palms, golf greens and beautiful beaches, and so a great part of this geologically, geographically and biologically unique archipelago remains unknown to the ordinary tourist. I had nearly said unnoticed, but this cannot be quite true. The ocean stretching beyond the horizon, and the volcanic landscape impress all with their majesty. The Hawaii archipelago consists of 132 islands, reefs and atolls, stretching from the Big Island (Hawaii) to the Kure atoll in the north-western part of the archipelago, altogether some 2500 km. These small patches of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean make up the most isolated chain of islands on Earth. The islands have been formed over the ages as volcanoes in the diastrophic movement of the Pacific tectonic plate across the Hawaii hotspot (a special stationary area in Earth’s middle region), and together with the plate they move at a rate of about 8,6 cm per year towards northwest, become extinct and are slowly eroded until they again disappear beneath the sea surface. Thus islands have been formed, and existed, here during the last nearly 80 million years. Of the present-day larger islands the oldest is the most north-westerly, Kaua'i (5,1 million years), after that O'ahu (3,7 million years), Moloka'i (1,9 million years), Maui (1,3 million years) and Hawai'i or Big Island (0,4 million years), and about 30 km to the south of Big Island there is a new volcano Lo’ihi growing below the sea surface. The millions of years of geographic isolation have produced a unique fauna and flora on the islands. Of the present-day native species nearly 95 % are endemic to Hawaii (that is, originated on these islands and only occurring here). Because of the special characteristics of the flora, the Hawaii archipelago forms a plant geographical region of its own. Man reached the Hawaii islands in about 300 CE. The first inhabitants were probably from the Marquesa islands, later joined by settlers from Tahiti. Settlement became permanent in about 400-600 CE. With the growing population the archipelago experienced a local „ecological crisis”, as a result of which a great number of the island’s natural biomes were destroyed and the big non-flying birds that had inhabited the islands were eaten. Of Caucasians, the first to reach the islands were Spaniards in 1527, then, in 1778, J. Cook discovered the islands for a second time. Today the Hawaii archipelago is like a giant natural laboratory, where simultaneously volcanic activity and genesis of new species occur as well as human-influenced large-scale eradication of species and rapid entry of foreign species.
For the curious:
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