Loihi

Based on how the island chain of Hawaii was formed and other evidence, the prediction of the location of Lohi, the newest still submerged island in the island chain, will be located at about 151/2 W, and 18 N. based on data that tells how far apart Loihi is currently from the big island. Another reason is on how the chain was formed, since the Hawaiian Islands are shield volcanoes.
The island chain curves around, so Loihi will most likley end up southwest of the big island. Volcanic activity could move around and based on plate activity, coud shift its position. The pattern of volcanic eruptions has some part in the movement of the islands. the youngest islands are to the south and the current volcanic activity could cause the island chain to shift northwest causing Loihi to migrate from its current position to its estimated position.
The volcanic activity causes earthquakes which are shifting the plates and causing the islands to shift.
whwn Loihi erupts it forms carters and dumps sediment on the sea floor that is shifted by the earthquakes that follow. The last volcanic and earthquake activity occurred in 1996 and greatly changed the shape and shifted the plate that runs from the southeast to the northwest of the Hawaiian Island chain.
Another theory is that there is an immobile hotspot under the plate that the south eastern islands of Hawaii are located on. AS the molten rock hits the surface it cools pushing existing rock formations northwest along the ridge of the plate. It has been estimated that the narrow vertical passageways are about 200 miles across that feed the molten lava to the surface or into long narrow lava tubes near the surface. All this activity causes a painfuly slow chang in the Hawaiian Island chains location. ~na4