How is hawaiian and modern volcanolgy differ?

Question

How is hawaiian and modern volcanolgy differ?

Answer 1

The Hawaiian volcanoes are over a "hotspot" far from the normal diverging plate volcanoes (mid-ocean ridge, Iceland) and plate convergent volcanoes (Pacific Rim of Fire).  If one looks at a map of the sea floor of the Hawaiian islands, it is evident the Pacific plate (the only large plate totally underwater and which does not contain a continent) is moving northwestward.  Evident because each of the islands and atolls have been formed over the same hotspot which now fuels the active lava flows on the islands.  The hotspots are actually thinning and stretched areas of the earths crust.