Intro

Hello and welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.

I’m Jans, your Mnemonic Man, and today's episode we will be venturing to the 50th state of the United States, the Hawaiian Islands.

The Hawaiian Islands were formed by a hotspot beneath the Pacific plate, which led to volcanic activity, which is still happening to this day with Kilauea and Mauna Loa on the Big Island.

The archipelago consists of eight main islands, with Oahu containing the capital, Honolulu, and the famous Waikiki Beach. It also contains the famous North Shore, which boasts the iconic surf beaches, Waimea, Sunset, and Pipeline.

The Big Island of Hawaii is just that, the biggest of the Hawaiian Islands, containing a diverse ecosystem ranging from tropical forests, arid deserts, and snow-capped mountains.

Kauai is known as the Garden Island for its abundance of flora and lush landscapes. It also contains the beautiful Poipu Beach on its southern coast.

Lanai, which is a little more remote, offers secluded beaches, four-wheel driving, hiking, and horseback riding.

Maui has the iconic Road to Hana, the Pineapple Farm, whale watching, and one thing that I remember very vividly when I was there, snorkelling at Molokini Crater, where the Green Sea Turtles can be up to 130kg.

Finally, Molokai which is home to the world’s highest sea cliffs and the longest continuous fringing reef.

Today’s mnemonic will be on the top six islands of Hawaii.

So, with that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.

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Wikipedia Summary

The Hawaiian Islands (Hawaiian: Mokupuni Hawaiʻi) are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the island of Hawaiʻi in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll.

Formerly called the Sandwich Islands[a] by Europeans, the present name for the archipelago is derived from the name of its largest island, Hawaiʻi.

The archipelago sits on the Pacific Plate. The islands are exposed peaks of a great undersea mountain range known as the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain, formed by volcanic activity over the Hawaiian hotspot. The islands are about 1,860 miles (3,000 km) from the nearest continent and are part of the Polynesia subregion of Oceania.

The U.S. state of Hawaii occupies the archipelago almost in its entirety (including the mostly uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands), with the sole exception of Midway Atoll (a United States Minor Outlying Island).

Hawaii is the only U.S. state that is situated entirely on an archipelago, and the only state not geographically connected with North America. The Northwestern islands (sometimes called the Leeward Islands) and surrounding seas are protected as a national monument and World Heritage Site.

The Hawaiian Islands have a total land area of 6,423.4 square miles (16,636.5 km2). Except for Midway, which is an unincorporated unorganized territory of the United States, these islands and islets are administered as Hawaii—the 50th state of the United States.[1]

Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Islands]

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Mnemonic

Hawaiian Islands – Top 6 Mnemonic – Katie HOLMM

(Picture Katie Holmes taking a well-earned break on the island of Oahu on Waikiki Beach)

1. Kauai

2. Hawaii

3. Oahu

4. Lanai

5. Maui

6. Molokai

Five Fun Facts

1. Hawaii has the tallest peak in the world. Well, sort of. Mauna Kea is measured at 4,207 metres, which is not even half the size of Mount Everest. However, if you measure Mauna Kea from the base to the peak, it measures a whopping 10,210 metres. Around 6,000 metres is below sea level, with the base of the mountain on the sea floor.

2. Still on mountains. Hawaii also has the most active volcano in the world. Kilauea is only 1,247 metres high, but has been erupting continuously since 1983. This volcano was created as the Pacific tectonic plate shifted northwest over a volcanic hotspot.

Now, there was a rumour about Kilauea and Mauna Loa that my therapist told me, after he had instructed me to go to Hawaii and wave my worries goodbye! Apparently, all they do is make lava!

3. The US has a royal residence, and that royal residence came when the US annexed Hawaii. Hawaii had a long and proud history of ruling monarchs and the official residence for these monarchs was Iolani Palace. This palace was completed by King David Kalakaua in 1882, and amazingly featured electric lights (which was 11 years before the White House), indoor plumbing, and a telephone.

4. Mount Waialeale is disputedly the wettest place in the world. The Hawaiians claim the title due to consistently, having high rainfall throughout the past decades which is on average 450 inches. However, Mawsynram in India is reportedly the wettest with an average of 467.4 inches per year. The mountain is named “rippling water” and receives all the rain blown in by the trade winds from the northeast of the Pacific.

5. Hawaii also contains what used to be the largest ranch in the U.S. It is now the biggest in Hawaii and was founded in 1847. The ranch encompasses about 250,000 acres on the Big Island. When the gifted cattle started to overrun the forests and trample native plants, Kamehameha III invited three Mexican vaqueros (cowboy/cattle driver) from California to wrangle the now-wild cattle. From here the Hawaiian cowboy evolved, who were called paniolos.