The island of Kauai used to sit on the hot spot; it is approximately 5.1 million years old and is now approximately 473 km away from the hot spot, to the northwest. Given these parameters, what is the average rate of motion of the Pacific Plate in cm per year?

9.274 cm per year.

Explanation:

Given:

Island of Kauai used to sit on the hot spot; it is approximately 5.1 million years old.

And 473 km away from the hot spot.

Question asked:

Given these parameters, what is the average rate of motion of the Pacific Plate in cm per year?

Solution:

First of all we will change the distance 473 Km into cm,

As we know that, 1 km = 100000 cm

                        473 km =

Here time span is also given, 5.1 million years old, we can write this as,

Now, average rate of motion of the Pacific Plate can be determined by dividing the distance traveled by plates from its time span.

Average rate of motion of the Pacific Plate =

                                                                       =

                                                                       =

Therefore, he average rate of motion of the Pacific Plate is 9.274 cm per year.