...the hotspot responsible for the Hawaii-Emperor seamount chain was not fixed. Rather it had been drifting quite distinctly southward. Nearly 50 million years ago, it finally came to rest while the Pacific plate steadily pushed on, the combination of which resulted in the prominent bend.
Monday, April 06, 2009
Non-Stationary Hot Spots
PhysOrg: Bent tectonics: How Hawaii was bumped off