How Did Hawaii Form?

Hawaii is a bunch of islands that were made by volcanoes coming up from under the ocean.

Imagine you're playing with your favorite toy, maybe it's a ball, or a small pile of sand. Now imagine that ball starts growing bigger and bigger because more and more sand keeps being added to it. That’s kind of what happened with Hawaii.

Deep down in the ocean, there are volcanoes that aren’t visible from above. These volcanoes started erupting, boom!, lava came up from under the sea.

At first, you couldn't see them because they were still underwater. But as more and more lava was added, these islands grew taller until they finally popped out of the ocean like a giant cake rising from the water.

Once the volcano stopped erupting, it cooled down, just like how your hot chocolate gets cold when you leave it on the table. That’s how each island in Hawaii was made: one volcano at a time!