Why Does Hawaii Move Closer to Japan Every Year?
May 12, 2025
Hi! Welcome back to the Kids Answers magazine blog, where we answer your big questions about God’s Word and God’s world.
Levi S. (age 9) asked,
Why does Hawaii move closer to Japan every year?
Hi Levi!
All the land on earth used to be connected as one large supercontinent. But during the global flood of Noah’s day, the earth’s crust broke into giant pieces called tectonic (tek-TAH-nik) plates. These tectonic plates are always slowly moving.
The Hawaiian Islands sit on top of the Pacific plate. The Pacific plate is slowly moving northwest across a hot spot that’s deep in the earth’s mantle (the thick layer between earth’s crust and core). A hot spot is an area in the mantle where extra-hot magma (hot, liquid rock) rises, forming volcanoes and islands. The Hawaiian Islands were formed from this hot spot.
The Pacific plate’s movement is very slow, around just four inches per year—about the length of one crayon. If Hawaii were to continue moving in its northwest direction at the same rate that it’s currently traveling, it might reach Japan in 63 million years.
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