Rano Rahi seamounts
field of seamounts in the Pacific Ocean, part of a series of ridges on the Pacific Plate
Rano Rahi (Rapa Nui: "Many volcanoes") is a field of seamounts in the Pacific Ocean. These seamounts in part form a series of ridges on the Pacific Plate pointing away from the neighbouring East Pacific Rise and which were volcanically active until about 230,000 years ago, and possibly even more recently.
The origin of these seamounts is unclear. Proposals include the effect of tectonic forces on the Pacific Plate and the presence of mantle flow towards the East Pacific Rise.
Geography and geomorphology
This field lies west of the East Pacific Rise, and covers an area between the Rise and 118° western longitude and between 17° and 19° southern latitude. The Pukapuka submarine ridge extends west of the field towards the Tuamotu islands.
The Rano Rahi seamount field consists of several chains of seamounts that emanate from the East Pacific Rise. These chains are lined up in the direction of the motion of the Pacific Plate, and as they get farther away from the East Pacific Ridge, the seamounts increasingly overlap with each other until they form ridges, which reach median lengths of 62 kilometres (39 mi). The seamounts in the field are typically less than 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) high but several kilometres wide; seamounts that are part of a ridge are 1.0–1.5 kilometres (0.62–0.93 mi) high. The total volume of rocks in the seamount province is about 9,100 cubic kilometres (2,200 cu mi).
The public source identifies “Rano Rahi seamounts” as field of seamounts in the Pacific Ocean, part of a series of ridges on the Pacific Plate. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Rano, Rahi and seamounts.
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Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 12, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q55631179. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rano Rahi seamounts” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.