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Rano Kau is a tall extinct volcano that forms the southwestern headland of Easter Island
Easter Island

Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian triangle. The island is a special territory of Chile....
, a Chilean island in the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portugal explorer Ferdinand Magellan....
; it was formed of basaltic lava flows in the Pleistocene
Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 1.8 million to 10,000 years Before Present covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
 with its youngest rocks dated at between 150,000 and 210,000 years ago.

Kau has a crater lake
Crater Lake

Crater Lake is a caldera lake located in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and famous for its deep blue color and water clarity....
 which is one of the island's only three natural bodies of fresh water. Most of the Volcano is on the coast and has been eroded back to form high sea cliffs which at one point have started to bite into the crater wall.






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Encyclopedia


Rano Kau is a tall extinct volcano that forms the southwestern headland of Easter Island
Easter Island

Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian triangle. The island is a special territory of Chile....
, a Chilean island in the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portugal explorer Ferdinand Magellan....
; it was formed of basaltic lava flows in the Pleistocene
Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 1.8 million to 10,000 years Before Present covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
 with its youngest rocks dated at between 150,000 and 210,000 years ago.

The crater

Rano Kau has a crater lake
Crater Lake

Crater Lake is a caldera lake located in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and famous for its deep blue color and water clarity....
 which is one of the island's only three natural bodies of fresh water. Most of the Volcano is on the coast and has been eroded back to form high sea cliffs which at one point have started to bite into the crater wall. On its Northern side the Volcano slopes down to Mataveri International Airport
Mataveri International Airport

Mataveri International Airport or Isla de Pascua Airport is located at Hanga Roa on Rapa Nui . It is from Santiago, Chile which has scheduled flights to it on the Chilean carrier LAN Airlines , and from Mangareva in the Gambier Islands....
.

Rano Kau is in the world heritage site
World Heritage Site

A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site that is on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 Sovereign state which are elected by their General Assembly for a four-year term....
 of Rapa Nui National Park
Rapa Nui National Park

Rapa Nui National Park is a world heritage site located on Easter Island, Chile. The park is divided into seven sections. :*Rano Kau *Puna Pau ....
 and gives its name to one of the seven sections of the park. The principal archaeological site on Rano Kau is the ruined ceremonial village of Orongo
Orongo

?Orongo is a stone village and ceremonial center at the southwestern tip of Rapa Nui . The first half of the ceremonial village's 53 stone masonry houses was investigated and restored in 1974 by American archaeologist William MulloyIn 1976 Mulloy assisted by Chilean archaeologists Claudio Cristino and Patricia Vargas completed the restorat...
 which is located at the point where the sea cliff and inner crater wall converge. One Ahu
Easter Island

Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian triangle. The island is a special territory of Chile....
 with several Moai
Moai

'Moai' are monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Polynesian island of Rapa Nui between 1250 and 1500 Common Era. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called Easter Island#Ahu around the island's perimeter....
 was recorded on the cliffs at Rano Kau in the 1880s, but had fallen to the beach by the time of the Routledge expedition
Katherine Routledge

Katherine Maria Routledge, n?e Pease was a United Kingdom archaeologist who initiated the first true survey of Easter Island.She was the second child of Kate and Pease family , and was born into a wealthy Quakers family in Darlington, northern England....
 in 1914.

As well as basalt
Basalt

Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually gray to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet....
, it contains several other igneous rocks including obsidian
Obsidian

Obsidian is a naturally occurring glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock. It is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools without crystal growth....
 (for which it was one of the major sources for the islands stoneworkers), and pumice
Pumice

File:Pumice stone444.jpgFile:Pumice stone detail444.jpgPumice is a textural term for a volcanic rock that is a solidified frothy lava typically created when super-heated, highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano....
.

The crater is almost a mile across and has its own micro climate. Sheltered from the winds that dry most of the rest of the island, figs and vines flourish at Rano Kau.

Geothermal activity


At some point in the early twentieth century the island's manager took a photo of steam coming out of the crater wall

See also

  • List of volcanoes in Chile
    List of volcanoes in Chile

    This is a list of active and extinct volcanoes in Chile.See also * List of lakes in Chile* List of rivers of ChileReferences ...


External links

  • from the Easter Island Foundation