The major islands of the state of Hawaii are formed from a line ...

[jasdeep_brar]

The major islands of the state of Hawaii are formed from a line of separate volcanoes emerging from the ocean floor of the Pacific Plate. The line extends from Kauai in the northwest, to Hawaii in the southeast over a range of hundreds of miles. Kauai was formed from volcanoes that formed about 5 million years ago; on Hawaii the volcanoes are currently active.
 
  Explain the process that formed the Hawaiian Islands and what information a geophysicist could determine about the motion of Earths parts from observing them.
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Describe the three types of plate boundaries and the motions that lead to them.
  What will be an ideal response?

[beccamahon]

Answer to Question 1

ANSWER: In the deep layers of the mantle, a hot lump of basalt will rise and begin to melt. As it nears the surface, it will create a magma plume, a bubble of hot molten rock. This plume will eventually fuel a volcano under the ocean, which grows above the surface to form an island. The crustal plate moves as new volcanoes are created, causing the volcanoes to be spaced out in a line of separate islands. By observing the Hawaiian Islands, a geophysicist could conclude that the Pacific Plate is moving in the direction from Hawaii towards Kauai, and that it must have moved at a certain speed to move Kauai away from the hot spot in the last five million years.

Answer to Question 2

ANSWER: Convergent boundaries are created when two plates collide, with both plates moving toward each other. Divergent boundaries are created when two plates separate, with both plates moving away from each other. Transform boundaries are created when two plates slide past each other, neither separating or colliding.