Physical Features
As you can see in the picture above, one the main physical features of Tahiti is the Te Pari cliffs. The Te Pari
cliffs is located in Tahiti Iti, the south island. The Te Pari cliffs are very steep and they look very vertical.Tahiti is a volcanic island that emerged approximately 1.4 million years ago, slowly rising over hundreds of thousands of years from the sea floor some 4000 meters deep. Initially emerging as two islands, Tahiti Iti and Tahiti Nui, these two constituent parts were later connected by the isthmus of Taravao. Given its volcanic origins, the rocks in Tahiti are basalts, alkali basalts, transition atlotholeiites, basanites, picrites, and evolved lavas.Hot spot volcanoes, the kind responsible for forming most of the Polynesian Archipelago, are the result of consistent convection plumes of molten mantle material that eventually rise to the surface. In comparison to the tectonic plate above, a hot spot is a stationary feature of the mantle below and will generate volcanic islands in a chain above its plume of heated lava as it penetrates the oceanic plate when it moves across the hot spot. It is this geologic process that formed Tahiti and the other islands in the Society Archipelago, with Tahiti being the youngest of the chain. Volcanic activity ended 380,000 years ago on Tahiti Iti and 200,000 years ago on Tahiti Nui, and a new island called Mehetia is currently forming above the hot spot some 125 km from Tahiti Nui. The Natives of Tahiti call the island "The many colored waters."
cliffs is located in Tahiti Iti, the south island. The Te Pari cliffs are very steep and they look very vertical.Tahiti is a volcanic island that emerged approximately 1.4 million years ago, slowly rising over hundreds of thousands of years from the sea floor some 4000 meters deep. Initially emerging as two islands, Tahiti Iti and Tahiti Nui, these two constituent parts were later connected by the isthmus of Taravao. Given its volcanic origins, the rocks in Tahiti are basalts, alkali basalts, transition atlotholeiites, basanites, picrites, and evolved lavas.Hot spot volcanoes, the kind responsible for forming most of the Polynesian Archipelago, are the result of consistent convection plumes of molten mantle material that eventually rise to the surface. In comparison to the tectonic plate above, a hot spot is a stationary feature of the mantle below and will generate volcanic islands in a chain above its plume of heated lava as it penetrates the oceanic plate when it moves across the hot spot. It is this geologic process that formed Tahiti and the other islands in the Society Archipelago, with Tahiti being the youngest of the chain. Volcanic activity ended 380,000 years ago on Tahiti Iti and 200,000 years ago on Tahiti Nui, and a new island called Mehetia is currently forming above the hot spot some 125 km from Tahiti Nui. The Natives of Tahiti call the island "The many colored waters."