Evolution of Hawaiian volcanoes went through the rejuvenated stage, while its younger neighbors, East Molokai and West Maui, have evidently done so. It is currently unknown what stage of development the submerged volcano of Penguin Bank is in. In recent years research at other seamounts, for instance Jasper Seamount, has confirmed that the Hawaiian model applies to other seamounts as well. Evolution of Hawaiian volcanoes The fifteen volcanoes that make up the eight principal islands of Hawaii are the youngest in a chain of more than 129 volcanoes that stretch across the North Pacific Ocean, called the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain. Hawaii's volcanoes rise an
Evolution of Hawaiian volcanoes Waialeale, and Niihau volcanoes are in this stage of development. Eventually, erosion and subsidence break the volcano down to sea level. At this point, the volcano becomes an atoll, with a ring of coral and sand islands surrounding a lagoon. All the Hawaiian islands west of the Gardner Pinnacles in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are in this stage. Atolls are the product of the growth of tropical marine organisms, so these islands are only found in warm tropical waters. Eventually, the Pacific Plate carries the volcanic atoll into waters too cold for these marine organisms to maintain a reef by