The Final Blog....

NOW
Hawaii. The 50th and one of the most unique states in America. It is comprised of eight islands and is located several thousands of miles away from continental America's west coast. If you were to look on a map, you'd notice that Hawaii is in the middle of the ocean. How did it get there? Like mentioned in a previous blog entry, the leading theory/belief is that on the ocean floor, there is a hotspot and as the Pacific tectonic plate adjusts northwest, it created a chain of islands.

These islands are known as having fringing reefs. A fringing reef refers to a reef that grows close to the shore with a lagoon that is shallow or doesn't have one at all.

1000 YEARS
In 1000 years, Oahu will not look that much different than it does now. The major differences that would have occurred would be the continuing erosion of the mountains. The slopes of the mountain will continue to slowly decrease in area. Contributing factors in the erosion will be rainwater and wind. The combination will cause the deepening and creation of valleys along the mountain side.

10000 YEARS
Within another 9000 years, the erosion of the mountains and land will continue. And the fringing reef will begin it's process into becoming a barrier reef.  Barrier reef occur because as the land mass begins to sink under the sea, the coral maintains its pace of growth and continues to be at surface level, but now it is considerably further away from land giving it the title of barrier reef.

1000000 YEARS
At this point in time, the island of Oahu will have begun it's process into becoming an atoll. It may still be better described as a barrier reef, but it will have developed and eroded enough to have left barely anything left on the ocean's surface. It will also have traveled NW along the chain because of the tectonic shift that Pacific plate takes. This shift would adjust all the islands upwards.

The changes that a location's geography goes through tends to take several million years before a real significant change can be witnessed. With regards to the Hawaiian islands, it is important to take into consideration the age of the Northwestern islands, which are the oldest. The youngest of them being around seven million years old and still maintaining a state that is not quite an atoll. Significant changes to Oahu will probably be seen more significantly after, the above, one million year mark.

At the end of the day, Oahu will experience it's inevitable fate into becoming an atoll and eventually fading away from existence completely. The question is how long will it take for the tropical island state to reach it's destiny.

Sources:
Previous Blog entries
Lecture Notes
http://www.coral-reef-info.com/types-of-coral-reefs.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060417110331.htm