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| Hawaii! |
Hawaii is an island chain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, about as far from a continent as you can be on our earth. The islands were never part of a continent, they were created by a mid-Pacific volcanic hot spot forcing lava up to toward the surface. The ocean is 19,000 feet deep in that area, but the push from below is persistent: it built islands that not only emerged above the ocean surface but that reach heights of more than 13,000'. The two tall volcanoes on the Big Island, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, are both taller than Mt. Everest (29,005') if you count from the sea floor (30,085 and 30,196' respectively.)
That combination of history and isolation makes Hawaii the hardest place for plants and animals to colonize. Botanists estimate that only 290 plants ever made it on their own. They have to have survived drifting in floating debris for weeks, or clung as living seeds to the feet of birds on a long-distance flight or, in the case of the tiny spores of ferns, ridden a storm wind and landed not in the sea but on a tiny bit of land.