Moai (seamount)

Moai
Map
Height>2,500 metres
Location
LocationPacific Ocean, west of Easter Island
Coordinates27°06′S 109°51′W / 27.1°S 109.85°W / -27.1; -109.85[1]
Geology
TypeSubmarine volcano
Volcanic arc/chainSala y Gómez ridge
Age of rockPleistocene
Last eruption>100,000 BCE

The Moai Seamount is a submarine volcano, the second most westerly in the Easter Seamount Chain or Sala y Gómez ridge. It is east of Pukao seamount and west of Easter Island. It rises over 2,500 metres from the ocean floor to within a few hundred metres of the sea surface.[2] The Moai seamount is fairly young, having developed in the last few hundred thousand years as the Nazca Plate floats over the Easter hotspot.

The Moai seamount was named after the moai statues of neighbouring Easter Island.

  1. ^ Geographic.org
  2. ^ Haase, Karsten M.; Peter Stoffers; C. Dieter Garbe-Schönberg (October 1997). "The Petrogenetic Evolution of Lavas from Easter Island and Neighbouring Seamounts, Near-ridge Hotspot Volcanoes in the SE Pacific". Journal of Petrology. 38 (6): 785–813. doi:10.1093/petrology/38.6.785.