Hawaii

A few years ago I had to opportunity to be able to visit beautiful state of Hawaii. During my time here I was able to surf, relax, and explore the natural beauty of the state. One thing had always stood out to be about Hawaii. The fact that they are islands made from a volcanic hot spot. I was intrigued to figure out what the islands had to offer in the form of their rocks. I had never really seen what igneous rocks looked like I had only seen pictures. Going up to the igneous rocks I was amazed of the texture of this cooled magma. The rocks were very porous and had a very rough texture. I know this is because the lava had cooled very rapidly once it came out of the earths crust and because of that quick cooling the crystals did not have much time to grow. After some further research I found out that the magma that I saw was called Hawaiian Basalts. Lastly, and probably the most amazing thing I experienced was the black sand beaches of Hawaii. This was crazy to me because all I had ever known was regular sand beaches and seeing one in person is something I loved. The black sand beaches are created because when the lava reaches the ocean the extreme heat of the lava meets the cool ocean and creates an explosive reaction. It is thought that with a big enough lava flow a full black sand beach can be created overnight.