Do you know exactly where on Earth Hawaii is? We have a fun little quiz on the location of the Hawaiian islands for you to test your knowledge. Some of the answers might surprise you!

Hawaii consists of 132 volcanic islands, reefs, and shoals with a total land area of 6,425 square miles strung across 1,523 miles of the North Pacific Ocean--from the Big Island of Hawaii in the extreme southeast to Midway in the extreme northwest. The center of one of the main SOEST buildings (the original Hawaii Institute of Geophysics building) can be located with the Xerox map server at latitude 21.32 degrees north, longitude 157.82 degrees west.

The main Hawaiian islands--the Big Island of Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, Kauai, Molokai, Niihau, and Kahoolawe--are the tiny green dots near the center of this map. (This simulated view is centered above 21 degrees north, at the International Date Line, which is west of the main Hawaiian islands; it is of course unnaturally cloudless. Actual images of the earth are often obscured to some degree by cloud cover. Compare this artificial view with the real thing: one of our our current Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (GMS) full-globe views of the earth.)

In a larger sense, of course, we are everywhere. SOEST researchers, ships, and submersibles go all over the planet to study the oceans and geology of the world--indeed, most of the world's geology lies under the ocean.

We are not limited to the study of Earth's surface and its processes. Seismologists use seismographs to image the internal structure of the planet, and high-pressure geophysicists use powerful presses to recreate conditions at its core. Planetary geophysicists and geologists use data from robot probes to "walk" on other worlds.

If you would like to learn more about Hawaii, take a virtual trip with SOEST's Virtually Hawaii presentation featuring NASA images of the Hawaiian islands. We also have several links to other Web sites about the islands and their people on our Other Sites page.