The world's most remote chain of islands, the Hawaiian archipelago, emerges in splendid isolation from the middle of the Pacific Ocean. One by one, the islands of Hawai'i were born from the volcanic hot spot that still fires eruptions on the Big Island. In conveyor- belt fashion, the relentlessly moving Pacific plate has carried the islands to the northwest, while the forces of time and the sea have reshaped and leveled them into volcanic remnants, atolls, and shoals.

Portraits

by David Liittschwager and Susan Middleton

Introduction

by Susan Middleton

Field Stories

by David Liittschwager and Susan Middleton

   Hi'ialakai-NOAA Research Vessel

   Nihoa Island and Mokumanamana

   French Frigate Shoals

   Laysan Island

   Pearl and Hermes Atoll and Lisianski Island

   Midway Atoll

   Kure Atoll

Species Profiles

by Stephani Holzwarth and Alex Wegmann,

  Anita Manning and Steve Montgomery

Acknowledgments

Species Index