Explain why the southeastern islands in the Hawaiian Island chain contain active volcanoes and are larger while the northwestern islands are older smaller and have extinct volcanoes?

Answer 1

This is happening because of plate tectonics. The Pacific Plate is moving a few cenitmeters each year in a northwest direction. There is a hot spot under the Pacific plate that keeps feeding or creating the islands, as the plate moves, new islands are being formed in the southeast, at the older islands in the northwest are eroding away.

Answer 2

The southeastern islands in the Hawaiian Island chain contain active volcanoes because they are located over a hot spot where magma from deep within the Earth rises to the surface, creating new land through volcanic activity. In contrast, the northwestern islands are older and smaller because they have moved away from the hot spot, resulting in the cessation of volcanic activity and the erosion and subsidence of the land over time, leading to the formation of smaller, older, and extinct volcanoes.