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715. Inscription. 1995 (19th Session) Area. 71.3 km 2 (27.5 sq mi) Easter Island ( Spanish: Isla de Pascua [ˈisla ðe ˈpaskwa]; Rapa Nui: Rapa Nui) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania.
- Moai
Moai or moʻai (/ ˈ m oʊ. aɪ / ⓘ MOH-eye; Spanish: moái; Rapa...
- Rapa Nui People
Pre-European contact (300–1722 CE) Rapa Nui are believed to...
- File
You are free: to share – to copy, distribute and transmit...
- Rapa Nui Language
Rapa Nui or Rapanui (English: / ˌ r æ p ə ˈ n uː i /, Rapa...
- Gambier Islands
The Gambier Islands (French: Îles Gambier or Archipel des...
- Paschalococos
Paschalococos disperta, the Rapa Nui palm or Easter Island...
- History of Easter Island
They are believed to have been Polynesian. There is...
- Laura Alarcón Rapu
Easter Island, Chile: Political party: Independent:...
- Flag
The flag of Easter Island (Rapa Nui: Te Reva Reimiro or Te...
- Motu Nui
Motu Nui (large island in the Rapa Nui language) is the...
- Moai
- Overview
- Relief
- Climate
- Plant and animal life
Easter Island, Chilean dependency in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is the easternmost outpost of the Polynesian island world. It is famous for its giant stone statues. The island stands in isolation 1,200 miles (1,900 km) east of Pitcairn Island and 2,200 miles (3,540 km) west of Chile. Forming a triangle 14 miles (23 km) long by 7 miles (11 km) wide, it has an area of 63 square miles (163 square km); its highest point, Mount Terevaka, is 1,969 feet (600 metres) above sea level.
To its original inhabitants the island is known as Rapa Nui (“Great Rapa”) or Te Pito te Henua (“Navel of the World”). The first European visitors, the Dutch, named it Paaseiland (“Easter Island”) in memory of their own day of arrival. Its mixed population is predominantly of Polynesian descent; almost all live in the village of Hanga Roa on the sheltered west coast. Pop. (2002) 3,304; (2017) 7,750.
The small and hilly island is not part of a sunken landmass but is a typical oceanic high island formed by volcanoes rising from the seafloor. Geologic and oceanographic evidence shows that no perceptible emergence or submergence of the island’s coastline has taken place since the last fall in sea level, which occurred less than 10,000 years ago. However, in the early 21st century Easter Island experienced increasing coastal erosion because of rising sea levels, which also threatened various archeological sites. Three extinct volcanoes chiefly composed of tuff (a porous rock formed of compacted volcanic fragments) and joined by their own lava flows give the island its characteristic triangular shape. Parasitic tuff craters and cones (i.e., craters and cones formed on the side of, or near, volcanoes after the original vent has become plugged up) are interspersed in the landscape, which is otherwise dominated by eroded lava fields in which obsidian is commonly found.
Most of these fields are thickly packed with both large and small lumps of cellular and tuffaceous lava that is either black or rusty in colour. Stoneless surface soil is sparse; it is suitable for extensive cultivation mainly in the Hanga Roa and Mataveri area in the southwest, at Vaihu and on the plain southwest of the volcano Rano Raraku, and on the prehistorically cleared Poike peninsula in the eastern corner of the island. Rain collects in the partly bog-covered crater lakes of the volcanoes Rano Kao, Rano Raraku, and Rano Aroi. One intermittent stream, fed by the Rano Aroi crater lake, flows down Mount Terevaka’s slopes before disappearing into the porous soil. Water from the extremely deep crater of Rano Kao, which is about 3,000 feet (900 metres) wide, is piped to Hanga Roa. The coast is formed by soft, eroded, ashy cliffs, with a vertical drop of about 500 to 1,000 feet (150 to 300 metres); the cliffs are intercepted by long stretches of low, hard, and rugged lava formations.
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The climate is subtropical: i.e., sunny and dry. The warmest months are January through March, when the average temperature is 73 °F (23 °C), and the coolest months are June through August, when the average temperature is 64 °F (18 °C). Average annual precipitation is about 49 inches (1,250 mm) but with considerable annual variation. September is the driest month, and the heaviest rainfall occurs in June and July in accordance with the passage of austral winter fronts. Winds in June and August are irregular; during the rest of the year trade winds from the east and southeast are dominant. From September through March the Peru (or Humboldt) Current, which has an average temperature of about 70 °F (21 °C), flows against the island.
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Indigenous plants and animals are few. At the time of European arrival the toromiro tree, endemic to the island, was the only wild tree and the Carolina wolfberry the only wild shrub, the vegetation being predominantly herbaceous. The toromiro tree was overexploited by the island wood carvers, and the last local specimen died in the 1950s. The species was saved from extinction, however; the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition collected seeds and planted them in the Gothenburg Botanical Garden, and saplings from the garden were reintroduced to Easter Island in 1988. Analysis of pollen deposits has revealed that other trees and shrubs, among them the giant Chile palm (Jubaea spectabilis), were formerly present on the island until exterminated by extensive fires occurring at the time of aboriginal human settlement.
Today only 31 wild flowering plants, 14 ferns, and 14 mosses are reported. Grass and small ferns dominate the barren landscape, whereas the boggy crater lakes are thickly covered by two imported American species, the totora reed (an important building material) and Polygonum acuminatum (a medicinal plant). A number of cultivated species of plants were also introduced partly from America and partly from Polynesia before the arrival of Europeans; of these the principal species was the sweet potato, which was cultivated in extensive plantations and formed the staple diet. Bottle gourds, sugarcane, bananas, taro, yams, and two useful trees (i.e., the Asiatic paper mulberry, with bark used for cloth manufacture, and the American Triumfetta semitriloba, with bark used for rope making) were of aboriginal importation, as also probably were the husk-tomato, a small variety of pineapple, and the coconut.
Nov 9, 2009 · Print Page. Easter Island, located in the South Pacific Ocean, is home to an array of almost 900 giant stone figures that date back many centuries. The statues reveal their creators to be...
Area. 6,666 ha. Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. The capital city is Hanga Roa . It is famous for its 887 huge statues called Moai, made by the early Rapa Nui people. Easter Island also has a huge crater called Rano Kau at the edge of the island.
Mar 9, 2021 · Easter Island. Covering a total area of 163.6 km 2, Easter Island is a Polynesian island located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. Named Rapa Nui by its earliest residents, it is one of the most isolated inhabited islands in the world.
Oct 19, 2022 · By Allie Yang. October 19, 2022. • 8 min read. One of the most remote inhabited locations on Earth, Easter Island is famous for the thousand or so enigmatic, towering statues that dot its...
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