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Preliminary Account of Recent Geological Investigations on Easter Island

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

P. E. Baker
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Mineralogy, Parks Road, Oxford.

Abstract

Easter Island comprises three major volcanoes, Poike a simple strato-volcano, Rano Kau which is of similar size but with a caldera at its summit, and Terevaka which is the largest and most complex of the three. In addition there are about seventy minor eruptive centres. The lavas constitute an alkali-basalt-trachyte-soda-rhyolite series but the acid members are of very restricted development. There is evidence that the parasitic tuff cone of Rano Raraku has had a more complicated history than previous reports have suggested. Although no volcanic activity has ever been reported, some of the lava flows appear to be of very recent origin.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1967

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References

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