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Easter Island Volcano | John Seach
Central Pacific
27.12 S, 109.45 W
summit elevation 530 m
Shield volcanoes
Easter Island is located 3,600 km west of Chile and 2,075 km east of Pitcairn Islands.
The island is located 500 km east of the crest of the East Pacific Rise. The island is triangular in shape with an area of 160 sq. km and a maximum width of
about 24 km. The island is bounded in places by high cliffs
in the north and south-west. The southern coastline is formed by single flows only a few metres thick. The highest point on the island is Maunga Terevaka, 511 m above sea level.
Easter Island has been built around 3 main volcanoes (Poike, Rano Kau and Terevaka) and 70 vents. It is one of the most isolated inhabited islands in the world.
Poike Volcano
Poike comprises a a short peninsula 5 km east-west by 3.5 km north-south, with a summit elevation of 370 m. Pu akatiki is a shallow summit crater. Most of the peninsula is bounded by 100 m high cliffs. On the north side of the volcano there is a line of three parasitic domes, Maunga Vai a hera, M. Tea-tea and M. Parehe.
Rano Kau Volcano
Rano Kau (enormous lake) volcano forms a broad promontory about 4 km wide on the SW side of Easter Island. Only the northern side has not been severely eroded. The crater contains a 1.5 km wide lake. The three small islets, Motu iti, Motu nui and Motu kaokao are located 0.7 to 1.5 km SW of Rano Kau.
Mount Terevaka Volcano
Mount Terevaka volcano has formed from a complex series of eruptions. It has no distinct summit crater but there is instead a U-shaped system of ridges open to the north. The ridges are formed by coalescing pyroclastic cones with numerous craters. The largest crater is Rano a roi. Most of the surface of Easter Island is composed of lava flows erupted from Terevaka scoria cones.
Further reading
Vezzoli, L. and Acocella, V., 2009. Easter Island, SE Pacific: An end-member type of hotspot volcanism. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 121(5-6), pp.869-886.
Herrera, C. and Custodio, E., 2008. Conceptual hydrogeological model of volcanic Easter Island (Chile) after chemical and isotopic surveys. Hydrogeology Journal, 16(7), pp.1329-1348.
Easter Island Volcano Eruptions
No recent eruptions.