Cynthia Moyer, age 9, of Allentown, Pennsylvania, for her question:

How did the Hawaiian Islands form?

On a map of the world, the Hawaiian Islands look rather small and lost    way out there in the Pacific Ocean. But the job of building them was enormous. Of course, all the islands, the big continents and the seas were formed by the earth. The Hawaiian Islands started to form at least 100 million years ago. It was such a big job because it started on the solid floor of the great ocean. This was about three miles below the tossing waves on the surface.

It started with rumbling roars and shuddering seaquakes. First one, then another fiery volcano erupted from below. They poured out hot lava on the floor of the sea. Time after time, more and more volcanoes added lava. The piles became a mighty ridge of mountains, almost 2,000 miles long. They were undersea mountains, growing higher and higher. At last some of their peaks were tail enough to rise above the waves. They formed the pieces of dry land that became the Hawaiian Islands.