Hawaii mountains may flatten some day

Oahu's Koolau and Waianae mountains will one day be reduced to nothing by groundwater drawing minerals away from within, according to the study from Utah's Brigham Young University.

Geologist Steve Nelson said: "We tried to figure out how fast the island is going away and what the influence of climate is on that rate. More material is dissolving from those islands than what is being carried off through erosion."

Ground and surface water estimates from the US Geological Survey helped them calculate the total mass disappearing from the island each year, the Daily Mail reported Tuesday.