Two or three shield volcanoes formed Tahiti when they joined at the isthmus of Taravao more than a million years ago. With an area of 1045 sq km, the island of Tahiti accounts for nearly a third of the land area of French Polynesia. Its capital city, Papeete, which is located at the latitude 17° south and longitude 149° west, is also considered the capital and main tourist centre of French Polynesia. Tahiti, along with neighbouring Moorea, is part of the Society Islands. The Society Islands, so named by Captain James Cook because the distances between them are not considerable, are subdivided into the Windward Islands (so named because they sit to the direction of the prevailing trade wind) and the Leeward Islands (so named because they are downwind of the former islands).
35 islands and 83 atolls compose French Polynesia, which altogether cover a vast area of the eastern South Pacific Ocean, between the latitudes of 7° to 28° south and the longitudes of 131° to 156° west – more than 5 million sq km! However, the land area of these islands and atolls only total approximately 3500 sq km. Partially sunken islands can be identified by the remnants of mountains protruding from their lagoons.įrench Polynesia consists of five great archipelagos arrayed in chains running from southeast to northwest: the Society, Austral, Tuamotu, Gambier, and Marquesas Islands. In some instances, an atoll may be elevated by the same plate tectonics, forming “raised” islands with extremely steep sides. Over the eons, the earth’s crust has moved northwestward, thus building great seamounts or “high islands.” Erosion and weathering of these islands over time caused them to sink back into the ocean, forming flat atolls with coral surrounding their lagoons and marking their original boundaries.
The Polynesian islands were formed by hot spots, or molten lava escaping upward through cracks in the earth’s crust.
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