Mangaia

Mangaia is the southernmost of the Cook Islands, a volcanic island in the South Pacific surrounded by raised coral-reef terraces called makatea.

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Makatea: A raised limestone reef or coastal terrace, often marked by jagged karst terrain. Mangaia’s encircling fossil reef forms the island’s distinctive makatea belt.
Island uplift: The upward movement of an island relative to sea level through tectonic or volcanic processes. Uplift raised Mangaia’s former reefs above the sea.
Polynesian navigation: The wayfinding practices Polynesian voyagers used to travel across the Pacific using stars, winds, waves, and other signs. Mangaia became part of a wider network reached by skilled Pacific voyagers.
Tamarua: A settlement on Mangaia in the southern Cook Islands. Tamarua is one of Mangaia’s villages, set within the island’s distinctive terrain.
Atoll: A ring-shaped coral reef enclosing a lagoon, typically built around a subsiding volcanic island. Unlike an atoll, Mangaia’s central volcanic highland remains exposed above its raised reef.
Eustatic sea-level change: A global change in sea level caused by changes in ocean-water volume or the capacity of ocean basins. Past sea-level shifts helped determine where Mangaia’s successive reef surfaces formed.
Polynesian settlement of the Cook Islands: The migration and establishment of Polynesian communities across the Cook Islands. Archaeological and oral histories place Mangaia within the settlement of the southern Cook Islands.
Mangaia caves: Limestone caves on Mangaia formed within the island’s raised reef terrain. The makatea contains caves that have shaped local histories and archaeological research.
Coral reef: A marine ecosystem and limestone structure built chiefly by reef-forming corals and other organisms. Ancient reef growth supplied the limestone later lifted around Mangaia.
Plate tectonics: The theory that Earth’s lithosphere is divided into moving plates whose interactions shape the surface. Regional plate motion underlies the volcanic and tectonic history of the Cook Islands.