<P> In 2001 the Ocean Drilling Program (since merged into the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program), an international research effort to study the world's seafloors, funded a two - month expedition aboard the research vessel JOIDES Resolution to collect lava samples from four submerged Emperor seamounts . The project drilled Detroit, Nintoku, and Koko seamounts, all of which are in the far northwest end of the chain, the oldest section . These lava samples were then tested in 2003, suggested a mobile Hawaiian hotspot and a shift in its motion as the cause of the bend . Lead scientist John Tarduno told National Geographic: </P> <P> The Hawaii bend was used as a classic example of how a large plate can change motion quickly . You can find a diagram of the Hawaii--Emperor bend entered into just about every introductory geological textbook out there . It really is something that catches your eye ." </P> <P> Despite the large shift, the change in direction was never recorded by magnetic declinations, fracture zone orientations or plate reconstructions; nor could a continental collision have occurred fast enough to produce such a pronounced bend in the chain . To test whether or not the bend was a result of a change in direction of the Pacific Plate, scientists analyzed the lava samples' geochemistry to determine where and when they formed . Age was determined by the radiometric dating of radioactive isotopes of potassium and argon . Researchers estimated that the volcanoes formed during a period 81 million to 45 million years ago . Tarduno and his team determined where the volcanoes formed by analyzing the rock for the magnetic mineral magnetite . While hot lava from a volcanic eruption cools, tiny grains within the magnetite align with the Earth's magnetic field, and lock in place once the rock solidifies . Researchers were able to verify the latitudes at which the volcanoes formed by measuring the grains' orientation within the magnetite . Paleomagnetists concluded that the Hawaiian hotspot had drifted southward sometime in its history, and that, 47 million years ago, the hotspot's southward motion greatly slowed, perhaps even stopping entirely . </P> <P> The possibility that the Hawaiian islands became older as one moved to the northwest was suspected by ancient Hawaiians long before Europeans arrived . During their voyages, seafaring Hawaiians noticed differences in erosion, soil formation, and vegetation, allowing them to deduce that the islands to the northwest (Ni ʻihau and Kaua ʻi) were older than those to the southeast (Maui and Hawaii). The idea was handed down the generations through the legend of Pele, the fiery Hawaiian Goddess of Volcanoes . </P>

The hawaiian islands are located where the pacific plate is