Hawaiian Trough

The Hawaiian Trough, also known as the Hawaiian Deep, is a depression of the sea floor surrounding the Hawaiian Islands, where the massive weight of the island chain downwarps the oceanic lithosphere; surrounding the islands like a moat, it is roughly 5500 meters deep. However, in accordance with the principle of isostasy, the sinking of the lithosphere is balanced by a corresponding rise beyond it, known as the Hawaiian Arch. The Big Island itself is still subsiding, at a rate of about 2.5 millimeters per year. The Hawaiian trough is located in the Pacific Ocean. This is basically a moat around the Hawaiian island. It is a deposition of the sea floor. The center depth is 3.6 miles deep. The pressure is 8575 psi’s. The coordinates are 21 degrees North and 155 degrees west. The weight of the trough bends the lithosphere of which it sits on down. Around Hawaii there is a moat that is 5500 meters deep; this is called the Hawaiian Trough. This trough is levered up 200 meters or so above what the average depth is on the oceans crust. This trough had made coral reefs that were once flat-lying to a more slated coral reef.