The Easter hotspot is a
volcanic hotspot
Hotspot, Hot Spot or Hot spot may refer to:
Places
* Hot Spot, Kentucky, a community in the United States
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities
* Hot Spot (comics), a name for the DC Comics character Isaiah Crockett
* Hot Spot (Tra ...
located in the southeastern
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
. The hotspot created the
Sala y Gómez Ridge which includes
Easter Island,
Salas y Gómez Island and the
Pukao Seamount
A seamount is a large geologic landform that rises from the ocean floor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abru ...
which is at the ridge's young western edge. Easter Island, because of its tectonomagmatic features (low eruptive rate, scattered rift zones, and scarce lateral collapses), represents an end-member type of hotspot volcano in this chain.
The hotspot may also be responsible for the formation of the
Tuamotu Archipelago,
Line Islands
The Line Islands, Teraina Islands or Equatorial Islands (in Gilbertese, ''Aono Raina'') are a chain of 11 atolls (with partly or fully enclosed lagoons) and coral islands (with a surrounding reef) in the central Pacific Ocean, south of the Hawa ...
, and the chain of seamounts lying in between.
See also
*
Easter Island § Geology
*
Moai (seamount)
References
External links
*
Volcanism of Chile
Hotspots of the Pacific Ocean
Geography of Easter Island
{{Volcanology-stub