Gardner Pinnacles
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The Gardner Pinnacles (Template:Langx) are two barren rock outcrops surrounded by a reef and located in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
The Pūhāhonu volcano responsible for the pinnacles is Template:Convert northwest of Honolulu and Template:Convert from French Frigate Shoals. The total area of the two small islets, remnants of an ancient shield volcano, the world's largest, is Template:Convert.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The highest peak is Template:Convert.<ref name=Garcia2020/>Template:Efn The surrounding reef has an area in excess of Template:Convert.<ref name="FWS">Gardner Pinnacles - Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge. U.S Fish and Wildlife Service. December 14, 2016</ref>
The Gardner Pinnacles were discovered and named in 1820 by the whaling ship Maro.<ref name="Rauzon2001">Template:Cite book</ref> The island may be the last remnant of one of the largest volcanoes on Earth.<ref name="soest.hawaii.edu">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It holds the record for the largest and hottest shield volcano.<ref name=Garcia2020>Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Efn
HistoryEdit
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The Gardner Pinnacles were first discovered on June 2, 1820, by the American whaler Maro, commanded by Captain Joseph Allen.<ref name="Rauzon2001"/>
In 1859, the position of the Gardner Pinnacles was determined by the survey schooner USS Fenimore Cooper.<ref name="Clapp 1972 pp. 1–25">Template:Cite journal</ref>
The Gardner Pinnacles are home to the giant opihi (Cellana talcosa), a limpet known in Hawaiian as the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, which is not found anywhere else in the world outside the Hawaiian Islands.<ref name="FWS"/> Numerous insects live on the island.<ref name="FWS"/><ref>Gardner Pinnacles (Pūhāhonu) Papahānaumokuākea (Northwestern Hawaiian Islands) Marine National Monument</ref>
In 1903 the Gardner Pinnacles became a part of the Hawaiian Islands Bird Reservation.<ref name="Clapp 1972 pp. 1–25"/> In 1940 it became a part of the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the 21st century it is part of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument wildlife refuge.<ref name=Garcia2020/>Template:Efn
The Gardner Pinnacles were used as an emergency helicopter landing spot for the Hawaiian HIRAN project, an effort to determine the locations of area islands with great precision for navigational purposes.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In the Hawaiian Archipelago, adjacent islands/reefs are French Frigate Shoals to the southeast, and Maro Reef to the northwest.
GeologyEdit
The island is made up of basalt rock,<ref name="Clapp 1972 pp. 1–25"/> which comes from lava erupted between 14 and 12 million years ago.<ref name=Garcia2020/>Template:Efn The rock is dark grey and dense,<ref name="Clapp 1972 pp. 1–25"/> and has a high forsterite content implying the magma source was at Template:Convert.<ref name=Garcia2020/>Template:Efn
According to a 2020 report in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Pūhāhonu contains approximately Template:Convert of rock, based on a 2014 sonar survey.<ref name=Garcia2020/>Template:Efn This would make it Earth's largest single volcano. Only about one-third of that volume is exposed above the sea floor while the rest is buried beneath a ring of debris, broken coral, and other material that has eroded from the peak. By comparison, from sea floor to peak, Mauna Kea, on Hawaii's Big Island, is the tallest shield volcano on Earth, but it is nowhere near as massive as Pūhāhonu. Another volcano on the Big Island is Mauna Loa; a 2013 study estimates Mauna Loa's volume at Template:Convert which is believed to be an overestimate.<ref name=Garcia2020/>Template:Efn Pūhāhonu is so heavy, researchers note, that it has caused Earth's crust nearby—and thus the volcano itself—to sink hundreds of meters over millions of years.<ref name="Science">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Puhahonu volcano (Gardner) would be twice as big as Mauna Loa's based on that research.<ref name="soest.hawaii.edu"/> Template:Efn
The Pūhāhonu and West Pūhāhonu volcanoes result from the Hawaii hotspot which is fed by the Hawaiian plume which had a major magmatic flux pulse at the time.<ref name=Garcia2020/>Template:Efn A longer magmatic flux pulse produced the Hawaiian Islands.<ref name=Garcia2020/>Template:Efn The five seamounts of the Naifeh Chain to the north of Pūhāhonu have a completely different tectonic origin, and are older (Late Cretaceous).<ref name=Sotomayor2023>Template:Cite journal</ref> At one time they were hypothesised to be related to the Pūhāhonu volcano because of arch volcanism, which can not be the case, given the newly determined age difference.<ref name=Sotomayor2023/>
EcologyEdit
The island has one plant known to grow on it, the succulent sea purslane.<ref name="papahanaumokuakea.gov">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> However, there are over a dozen species of bird observed here, many nesting.<ref name="papahanaumokuakea.gov"/> There is also a variety of insect species on the island.<ref name="papahanaumokuakea.gov"/>
In the surrounding waters there is a variety of sealife, which is noted as habitat for a limpet, the giant ophi which lives in tidal areas of the rocky island.<ref name="papahanaumokuakea.gov"/> There are many species of fish and coral life in the nearby waters.<ref name="papahanaumokuakea.gov"/>
The large numbers of birds have coated many surfaces of the island in guano, giving it a whitish appearance.<ref name="Clapp 1972 pp. 1–25"/>
Some of the fish species in the nearby waters include red lip parrotfish, doublebar goatfish, and reef triggerfish.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
NameEdit
The name Gardner comes from its discovery in 1820, when the Captain Joseph Allen of the ship Maro named it Gardner's Island.<ref name="papahanaumokuakea.gov"/> They also discovered Maro Reef, which is named for that sailing ship.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
It has sometimes been called Gardner Rock or Gardner Island, besides the Gardner Pinnacles.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The Hawaiian name, Pūhāhonu, means 'turtle surfacing for air', from pūhā 'to breathe at the surface' and honu 'turtle'.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
- List of volcanoes in the Hawaiian – Emperor seamount chain
- Nikumaroro (aka Gardner Island)