HISTORY8 - The Big Island of Hawaii
Pat and I will be visiting the Big Island of Hawaii in April so as usual I wanted to learn a little about its history. The island is often called the Island of Hawaii, the Big Island, or Hawaii Island to distinguish it from the state of Hawaii. I will refer to it as the Big Island. The Big Island is the largest island in the Hawaiian Islands, a group of eight major islands, several atolls (coral islands circling a lagoon), numerous smaller islets, and coral reefs in the North Pacific Ocean. As the figure below shows, the Island chain extends 1,500 miles in a southeasterly direction from the Kure Atoll to the Big Island. There are a grand total of 136 islands, seven inhabited. The state of Hawaii includes the entire chain of islands with the sole exception of Midway Island, which is an unincorporated U.S. territory. The Big Island of Hawaii is located at the southeastern end of the 1,500-mile long chain of Hawaiian Islands. Geology The Hawaiian