Bathymetry image of the Hawaiian archipelago

Penguin Bank is the name given to a now-submerged

shield volcano A shield volcano is a type of volcano named for its low profile, resembling a warrior's shield lying on the ground. It is formed by the eruption of highly fluid (low viscosity) lava, which travels farther and forms thinner flows than the more v ...

of the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost ...

. Its

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secre ...

-capped remains lie immediately west of the island of

Molokai Molokai , or Molokai (), is the fifth most populated of the eight major islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is 38 by 10 miles (61 by 16 km) at its greatest length and width with a us ...

, under relatively shallow water (see bathymetric map at the right).

Geology

The Penguin Bank volcano is part of the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain. It was one of the seven principal

Cenozoic Era The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configu ...

volcanoes that formerly constituted the prehistoric island of

Maui Nui Maui Nui or Greater Maui, is a modern geologists' name given to a prehistoric Hawaiian Island built from seven shield volcanoes. ''Nui'' means "great/large" in the Hawaiian language. 1.2 million years ago, Maui Nui was , 40% larger than the pr ...

, along with

West Molokai West Molokai Volcano, sometimes called Mauna Loa for the census-designated place, is an extinct shield volcano comprising the western half of Molokai island in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Geology It was formed in two volcanic phases during the Pleis ...

East Molokai The East Molokai Volcano, sometimes also known as Wailau for the Wailau valley on its north side, is an extinct shield volcano comprising the eastern two-thirds of the island of Molokai in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Description The East Molokai h ...

, Lānai,

West Maui The West Maui Mountains, West Maui Volcano, or Mauna Kahālāwai which means "holding house of water," is approximately 1.7 million years old and forms a much eroded shield volcano that constitutes the western quarter of Maui. Since its last eru ...

East Maui East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

, and

Kahoolawe Kahoolawe (Hawaiian: ), anglicized as Kahoolawe (), is the smallest of the eight main volcanic islands in the Hawaiian Islands. Kahoolawe is located about southwest of Maui and also southeast of Lānaʻi, and it is long by wide, with a total ...

. The date of the last eruption is unknown. It appears a

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environments, ...

occurred around the southeastern part of the volcano, near the Lanai area. A possible time frame for this supposed collapse would be roughly between 300,000 to around 700,000 years ago. There is no determined evidence for a collapse as it's unclear if the supposed landslide debris field near the large gap seen from satellite view is actually from Penguin Bank or not. The cause is likely from

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is di ...

when the volcano was still above the surface.

Boundary area

Penguin Bank is about long and wide and less than deep. The site coordinates are: NW (); NE (); SW (); and SE ().

Conservation

Plans to build

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. W ...

s on Penguin Bank were called off in April 2009, because the site is located in the heart of the

Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary The Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary is one of the world's most important whale habitats, hosting thousands of humpbacks (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') each winter. Sanctuary The sanctuary encompasses in the islands' wate ...

, requiring a lease from the then-active

Minerals Management Service The Minerals Management Service (MMS) was an agency of the United States Department of the Interior that managed the nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf (OCS). Due to perceived conflict of inte ...

(MMS). However, the MMS would not issue leases within marine sanctuaries, effectively killing the project.

References

Volcanoes of Maui Nui Undersea banks of the Pacific Ocean Geography of Maui County, Hawaii Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain Pleistocene shield volcanoes Pleistocene Oceania Cenozoic Hawaii Maui County, Hawaii Shield volcanoes of the United States Polygenetic shield volcanoes {{Hawaii-stub