Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T05:46:55.393Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bandy, M. C, 1937. Geology and Petrology of Easter Island. Bull. geol. Soc. Am., 48, 15891610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chubb, L. J., 1933. Geology of Galapagos, Cocos, and Easter Island. B.P. Bishop Mus. Bull., 110, 167.Google Scholar
Heyerdahl, T., Ferdon, E. N. Jr Mulloy, A. Skjölsvold, , and Smith, C. S., 1961. Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific. Vol. 1. Archaeology of Easter Island. Monograph of the School of Am. Res. and the Mus. of New Mexico, 24, 559 pp.Google Scholar
Lacroix, A., 1936. Composition mineralogique des roches volcaniques de l'lle de Pâques. Comp. Rend. Acad. Sci., 202, 527530.Google Scholar
Lacroix, A., 1936. Composition chimique des laves de l'lle de Pâques. Comp.Rend. Acad. Sci., 202, 601–5.Google Scholar