The eight Hawaiian Islands we know today are only the most recent formations in a chain of over 80 volcanoes that stretch for thousands of miles to the northwest, both above and below sea-level. The further southeast in this chain, the younger the volcano, ending with the island of Hawai’i and Lō‘ihi, a growing volcano still beneath the ocean’s surface. All of the volcanoes (both active and inactive) in this long chain formed because of the Hawaiian hot spot, a stationary plume of super-heated material deep in the earth. Heat from this material rises, eventually melting rock into magma. The magma then continues to rise. When some of it pushes its way to the surface, a volcanic eruption takes place.