Motu Iti, or ''Little island'' in the Rapa Nui language, is a small uninhabited

islet An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/ ...

near

Motu Nui Motu Nui is the largest of the Islet, islets located off the southwestern coast of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) and constitutes the westernmost point of Chile. Covering an area of 3.9 hectares, it is the summit of a submerged volcanic mountain tha ...

, about a mile from Rano Kau on the south western corner of Easter Island, a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

an island in the

Pacific 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 the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

. It has a land area of 1.6

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s, which makes it the second largest of the five satellite islands of Easter Island, after Motu Nui. Nowadays it is a bird sanctuary and part of the Rapa Nui National Park but until the late nineteenth century CE it was important to the Rapanui people both as their best sourceFlenley and Bahn The enigmas of Easter Island 2003 of

obsidian Obsidian ( ) is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Produced from felsic lava, obsidian is rich in the lighter element ...

for sharp edged

tools A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ...

and for an annual harvest of eggs and fledglings from the seabirds that nested on it. Motu Iti is the summit of a large volcanic mountain which rises over 2,000 meters from the sea bed.

Seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

s nesting on ''Motu Iti'' include the sooty tern.

References

Islands of Easter Island Uninhabited islands of Chile {{Chile-geo-stub

See also

References