Dear Mr. Scott Rowland,
How many volcanoes are in Hawaii? When we were looking for information for our reports, we found out that there are 132 islands, but it looked like some of the islands have more than one volcano. We have looked in encyclopedias, books, and on the internet, and can't find the answer.

Aileen and Dessirae

Hi Aileen and Dessirae,

The answer to your question depends on whether you want to include only active volcanoes, volcanoes that erupt only once in a while, or extinct volcanoes. It is a very good observation that some of the islands are made up of more than one volcano. For example, O'ahu, the island that I live on, is made up of two old and (hopefully) extinct volcanoes named Wai'anae and Ko'olau. The big island is made up of 5.

Within the main islands (as far north as Ni'ihau, there are 17 to 19, depending on who you ask. The island of Hawai'i has Kilauea, Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, Hualalai, and Kohala plus Lo'ihi (that hasn't made it above sea level) and Mahukona (that perhaps never did). Maui has East Maui volcano and West Maui volcano. Kaho'olawe is only one, Lana'i is only one, and Moloka'i is two (with perhaps a third now eroded below the ocean). O'ahu is two, Ni'ihau is one, and Kaua'i is one or perhaps two. Beyond Ni'ihau, of course, are the leeward islands and then the Emperor seamounts, also all volcanoes that were produced by the Hawaiian hotspot. If you add them all together, the total number is 107 according to Dave Clague and Brent Dalrymple of the US Geological Survey.

Your map of Hawai'i might include lots of small islands along the coastlines of some of the main islands. Most of these are not separate volcanoes but rather eroded remnants of the larger ones.

Sincerely,

Scott Rowland

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