Northwestern Hawaiian Islands

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, also called the Leeward Hawaiian Islands, are a chain of mostly uninhabited islands and atolls stretching northwest of Kauai and Niihau in the Pacific Ocean. The chain comprises ten major islands and atolls, including Nihoa, Necker, French Frigate Shoals, Gardner Pinnacles, Maro Reef, Laysan, Lisianski, Pearl and Hermes Atoll, Midway Atoll and Kure Atoll, with a total land area of only about 3.1 square miles. They are the oldest islands in the Hawaiian Emperor seamount chain, built by volcanic activity over a stationary hotspot and then shaped by millions of years of erosion. Nearly the entire chain lies within the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, one of the world largest marine protected areas, expanded in 2016; Midway Atoll is the only inhabited island, home to a small rotating population of United States government workers, and the rest of the chain falls under Honolulu County. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/