Rapa Nui is the world's most remote inhabited island. About 3,600 kilometers (2,236 miles) separate it from the American continent at its nearest point: the Chilean coast. Pitcairn Island, the nearest inhabited place, is almost 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) to the southwest.
Three million years ago, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean at a depth of almost 3,000 meters (9,843 feet), a huge volcano began to rise up. This was the birth of Poike, the first of the big volcanos, which now forms the eastern edge of the island. Five hundred thousand years later, a second eruption southeast of the first one gave rise to Rano Kau.
Finally, 300,000 years ago Maunga Terevaka rose up, creating the far northern tip of the triangle, which has a surface area of 166 kilometers² (64 miles²) and a maximum width of 12 kilometers (7.5 miles).
After producing 70 secondary cones, the eruptions ended around 3,000 years ago and today, none of the volcanos are active. The flow of lava created the gentle slopes which characterize the landscape of the island. Only the upper 511 meters (1,676 feet) of the big mountain rise above sea level. Visit Rapa Nui to see this amazing landscape of the island.
The coastline is dominated by high cliffs, molded through the millennia by erosion from Pacific swells, and as a result large beaches have not formed.
The ground is highly permeable, which explains why no permanent water courses exist. Natural rainwater reservoirs have formed in the craters of some volcanos and these are the source of the island's large natural water reserves. The biggest is in the Rano Kau crater, which is 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) in diameter and 200 meters (656 feet) deep.
RAPA NUI: EAST OF THE POLYNESIAN TRIANGLE
The island sits at the eastern extreme of the so-called Polynesian Triangle, formed by New Zealand (the western end) and Hawaii at the uppermost point. The approximate length of each of the sides of this triangle is almost equal to the distance from New York to Moscow.
Rapa Nui is located on the Easter Island tectonic microplate, at the point where the Nazca and South America plates intersect. The subduction phenomenon that occurs between the two plates causes the island to move towards Chile’s coast at a rate of 9 centimeters (3.5 inches) per year.
In any case, it is believed that millions of years will pass before the Polynesian Triangle loses its current form.
