On 8/6/2011 4:13 PM, Jean B. wrote:
> dsi1 wrote:
>> On 8/5/2011 2:24 PM, pure kona wrote:
>>> On Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:08:28 -1000, dsi1
>>> > wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 8/4/2011 11:05 AM, Andy wrote:
>>>>> > wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 8/4/2011 10:26 AM, Andy wrote:
>>>>>>> "John > wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>
>>>>> Fact or fiction? I dunno.
>>>>
>>>> I've never heard that this is so but it could be. I'm pretty sure that
>>>> the Tahitians carried coconuts on their voyages to Hawaii a thousand
>>>> years ago. My guess is that they drank the water they contained because
>>>> there was no need to take them for planting. They also took taro and
>>>> pigs. Where the heck did they get the pigs? :-)
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Best,
>>>>>
>>>>> Andy
>>>
>>>
>>> Settlers to Hawaii came from the Marquesas, probably, and they brought
>>> all the food plants and animals that they were used to. Hawaii was
>>> quite barren and there was really nothing to eat once they landed. It
>>> is not known if coconuts were even growing here when they arrived
>>> about 1100 or 1200 years ago. (No recorded history:<)
>>
>> I have never heard that Hawaii was a barren place before the humans
>> arrived. If this was true, one would expect the variety of flora and
>> fauna to be limited to introduced species. This is not true since
>> there are species in Hawaii found nowhere else. This probably means
>> that they thrived and lived here long before man did. How long does it
>> take for differing species of plants and animals to evolve? Hundreds
>> of thousands of years would be my guess but I am no expert.
>>
>> I'm not sure that there are any barren tropical islands existing
>> anywhere. I've never seen one.
>>
> [snip]
>
> I suppose that depends on the definition of "island". How about the very
> new ?islands? that have formed because of volcanic action?
>

I'm not going to get into a definition of island. I can tell you that
the Hawaiian islands can be thought of as a conveyer belt moving over a
weak spot in the Earth's crust. The islands form as the plates of the
Earth's surface move over this weak spot. The big island of Hawaii,
which is the Southeastern-most island, is the youngest island and is
estimated to be about 400,000 years old. It is still being formed. I
guess that's a good enough definition of "new." The oldest major island
in the Hawaiian chain is about 5 million years old. I guess you could
call it a mature island. The oldest island in the Hawaiian chain would
be around the Kuri Atoll and would have eroded away many millions of
years ago. This is the ultimate fate of all the Hawaiian islands.

The Hawaiian island chain is still very much being formed. The active
underwater volcano called Lōʻihi is expected to break the ocean's
surface within the next 100,000 years and will be the newest island in
the chain. My guess is that the plants will establish themselves as soon
as Lōʻihi has cooled down enough to support plant life. That's the way
it is with all the islands.