country moai 
The Polynesian Triangle is a region of the Pacific Ocean with three island groups at its corners : Hawaii , Easter Island (" Rapa Nui ") and ___MASK34___ (" Aotearoa "). It is often used as a simple way to define Polynesia . South America is a continent located in the western hemisphere , mostly in the southern hemisphere , with a relatively small portion in the northern hemisphere . It is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas , which is the model used in nations that speak Romance languages . The reference to South America instead of other regions ( like Latin America or the Southern Cone ) has increased in the last decades due to changing geopolitical dynamics ( in particular , the rise of ___MASK28___ ). An ocean ( the sea of classical antiquity ) is a body of saline water that composes much of a planet ' s hydrosphere . On Earth , an ocean is one of the major conventional divisions of the ___MASK14___ Ocean , which covers almost 71 % of its surface . These are , in descending order by area , the Pacific , Atlantic , Indian , Southern ( ___MASK25___ ), and Arctic Oceans . The word " sea " is often used interchangeably with " ocean " in American English but , strictly speaking , a sea is a body of saline water ( generally a division of the world ocean ) partly or fully enclosed by land . The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth ' s oceanic divisions . It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean ( or , depending on definition , to ___MASK39___ ) in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east . The Moai Seamount is a submarine volcano , the second most westerly in the Easter Seamount Chain or Sala y Gómez ridge . It is east of Pukao seamount and west of Easter Island . It rises over 2 , 500 metres from the ocean floor to within a few hundred metres of the sea surface . The Moai seamount is fairly young , having developed in the last few hundred thousand years as the Nazca Plate floats over the Easter hotspot . The Moai seamount was named after the moai statues of neighbouring Easter Island . The South American Plate (, ) is a tectonic plate which includes the continent of South America and also a sizeable region of the ___MASK50___ seabed extending eastward to the Mid - Atlantic Ridge . ___MASK40___ ( from " poly " " many " + " nsos " " island ") is a subregion of Oceania , made up of over 1 , 000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean . The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of ___MASK40___ are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language family , culture , and beliefs . Historically , they were experienced sailors and used stars to navigate during the night . The ___MASK25___ Plate is a tectonic plate containing the continent of ___MASK39___ and extending outward under the surrounding oceans . After breakup from Gondwana ( the southern part of the supercontinent Pangea ), the ___MASK25___ plate began moving the continent of ___MASK39___ south to its present isolated location causing the continent to develop a much colder climate . The ___MASK25___ Plate is bounded almost entirely by extensional mid - ocean ridge systems . The adjoining plates are the Nazca Plate , the South American Plate , the African Plate , the Indo - Australian Plate , the Pacific Plate , and , across a transform boundary , the Scotia Plate . The East Pacific Rise is a mid - oceanic ridge , a divergent tectonic plate boundary located along the floor of the Pacific Ocean . It separates the Pacific Plate to the west from ( north to south ) the North American Plate , the Rivera Plate , the Cocos Plate , the Nazca Plate , and the ___MASK25___ Plate . It runs from south from the Gulf of California in the Salton Sea basin in southern California to a point near 55 ° S , 130 ° W where it joins the Pacific - ___MASK25___ Ridge trending west - southwest towards ___MASK39___ near ___MASK34___ ( though in some uses the PAR is regarded as the southern section of the EPR ). Much of the rise lies about 3200 km ( 2000 mi ) off the South American coast and rises about 1 , 800  2 , 700 m ( 6 , 000  9 , 000 ft ) above the surrounding seafloor . The ___MASK30___  ___MASK32___ Trench , also known as the Atacama Trench , is an oceanic trench in the eastern Pacific Ocean , about 160 kilometres ( 100 mi ) off the coast of ___MASK30___ and ___MASK32___ . It reaches a maximum depth of 8 , 065 meters ( 26 , 460 ft ) below sea level in Richards Deep and is approximately 5 , 900 kilometres ( 3 , 666 mi ) long ; its mean width is 64 kilometres ( 40 mi ) and it covers an expanse of some 590 , 000 square kilometres ( 228 , 000 mi² ). A sea is a large body of salt water that is surrounded in whole or in part by land . More broadly , " the sea " is the interconnected system of Earth ' s salty , oceanic waters  considered as one global ocean or as several principal oceanic divisions . The sea moderates Earth ' s climate and has important roles in the water cycle , ___MASK18___ cycle , and nitrogen cycle . Although the sea has been traveled and explored since prehistory , the modern scientific study of the sea  oceanography  dates broadly to the British " Challenger " expedition of the 1870s . The sea is conventionally divided into up to five large oceanic sections  including the International Hydrographic Organization ' s four named oceans ( the Atlantic , Pacific , Indian , and Arctic ) and the Southern Ocean ; smaller , second - order sections , such as the Mediterranean , are known as " seas ". The Easter hotspot is a volcanic hotspot located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean . The hotspot created the Sala y Gómez Ridge which includes Easter Island and the Pukao Seamount which is at the ridge ' s young western edge . Submarine volcanoes are underwater vents or fissures in the Earth ' s surface from which magma can erupt . A large number of submarine volcanoes are located near areas of tectonic plate movement , known as mid - ocean ridges . The volcanoes at mid - ocean ridges alone are estimated to account for 75 % of the magma output on Earth . Although most submarine volcanoes are located in the depths of seas and oceans , some also exist in shallow water , and these can discharge material into the atmosphere during an eruption . The total number of submarine volcanoes is estimated to be over 1 million , of which some 75 000 rise more than 1 km above the seabed . A seamount is a mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the water ' s surface ( sea level ), and thus is not an island . Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from the seafloor to in height . They are defined by oceanographers as independent features that rise to at least above the seafloor , characteristically of conical form . The peaks are often found hundreds to thousands of meters below the surface , and are therefore considered to be within the deep sea . During their evolution over geologic time , the largest seamounts may reach the sea surface where wave action erodes the summit to form a flat surface . After they have subsided and sunk below the sea surface such flat - top seamounts are called " guyots " or " tablemounts " The Rapa Nui are the native Polynesian inhabitants of Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean . The easternmost Polynesian culture , the Rapa Nui people currently make up 60 % of Easter Island ' s population and have a significant portion of their population residing in mainland ___MASK32___ . They speak both the traditional Rapa Nui language and the primary language of the island , Spanish . At the 2002 census there were 3 , 304 island inhabitants  almost all living in the village of Hanga Roa on the sheltered west coast . Easter Island is a Chilean island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean , at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle . Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues , called " moai ", created by the early Rapa Nui people . In 1995 , UNESCO named Easter Island a ___MASK14___ Heritage Site , with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park . A ___MASK14___ Heritage Site is a landmark which has been officially recognized by the United Nations , specifically by UNESCO . Sites are selected on the basis of having cultural , historical , scientific or some other form of significance , and they are legally protected by international treaties . UNESCO regards these sites as being important to the collective interests of humanity . Rapa Nui National Park is a national park and UNESCO - inscribed ___MASK14___ Heritage Site located on Easter Island , ___MASK32___ . Rapa Nui is the Polynesian name of Easter Island ; its Spanish name is Isla de Pascua . The island is located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean , at the southeastern extremity of the Polynesian Triangle . The island was taken over by ___MASK32___ in 1888 . Its fame and ___MASK14___ Heritage status arise from the 887 extant stone statues known by the name " moai ", whose creation is attributed to the early Rapa Nui people who inhabited the island around 300 AD . Much of the island has been declared as Rapa Nui National Park which , on 22 March 1996 , UNESCO designated a ___MASK14___ Heritage Site under cultural criteria ( i ), ( iii ), & ( v ). The park is under the administrative control of the Corporación Nacional Forestal ( CONAF ), which provides legal protection to the total area of the island . As Easter Island has insufficient resources for conserving its natural heritage , the Government of ___MASK32___ and the National Council of Monuments have provided financial support for the conservation efforts . Nazca ( sometimes spelled Nasca ) is a city and system of valleys on the southern coast of ___MASK30___ . It is also the name of the largest existing town in the Nazca Province . The name is derived from the Nazca culture that flourished in the area between 100 BC and 800 AD . This culture was responsible for the Nazca Lines and the ceremonial city of Cahuachi ; they also constructed an impressive system of underground aqueducts , named Puquios , that still function today . ___MASK30___ , officially the Republic of ___MASK30___ , is a country in western South America . It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia , in the east by Brazil , in the southeast by ___MASK15___ , in the south by ___MASK32___ , and in the west by the Pacific Ocean . ___MASK30___ is an extremely biodiverse country with habitats ranging from the arid plains of the Pacific coastal region in the west to the peaks of the Andes mountains vertically extending from the north to the southeast of the country to the tropical Amazon Basin rainforest in the east with the Amazon river . The Farallon Plate was an ancient oceanic plate that began subducting under the west coast of the North American Plate  then located in modern Utah  as Pangaea broke apart during the Jurassic period . It is named for the Farallon Islands , which are located just west of San Francisco , ___MASK92___ . ___MASK32___ , officially the Republic of ___MASK32___ , is a South American country occupying a long , narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west . It borders Peru to the north , Bolivia to the northeast , Argentina to the east , and the Drake Passage in the far south . Chilean territory includes the Pacific islands of Juan Fernández , Salas y Gómez , Desventuradas , and Easter Island in Oceania . ___MASK32___ also claims about of Antarctica , although all claims are suspended under the Antarctic Treaty . Earth , otherwise known as the ___MASK14___ , is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life . It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets . The Nazca Plate , named after the Nazca region of southern ___MASK30___ , is an oceanic tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin off the west coast of South America . The ongoing subduction , along the ___MASK30___  ___MASK32___ Trench , of the Nazca Plate under the South American Plate is largely responsible for the Andean orogeny . The Nazca Plate is bounded on the west by the Pacific Plate and to the south by the Antarctic Plate through the East Pacific Rise and the ___MASK32___ Rise respectively . The movement of the Nazca Plate over several hotspots has created some volcanic islands as well as east - west running seamount chains that subduct under South America . Nazca is a relatively young plate both in terms of the age of its rocks and its existence as an independent plate having been formed from the break - up of the Farallon Plate about 23 million years ago . The oldest rocks of the plate are about 50 million years old . Moai , or Mo  ai , are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island in eastern ___MASK40___ between the years 1250 and 1500 A . D . Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku , the main moai quarry , but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the island ' s perimeter . Almost all moai have overly large heads three - eighths the size of the whole statue . The moai are chiefly the living faces (" aringa ora ") of deified ancestors (" aringa ora ata tepuna "). The statues still gazed inland across their clan lands when Europeans first visited the island in 1722 , but all of them had fallen by the latter part of the 19th century . The ___MASK32___ Rise or ___MASK32___ Ridge is an oceanic ridge , a tectonic divergent plate boundary between the Nazca and Antarctic Plates . Its eastern end is the ___MASK32___ Triple Junction where the ___MASK32___ Rise is being subducted below the South American Plate in the Peru  ___MASK32___ Trench . It runs westward to a triple point south of the Juan Fernández Microplate where it intersects the East Pacific Rise . An island or isle is any piece of sub - continental land that is surrounded by water . Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets , skerries , cays or keys . An island in a river or a lake island may be called an eyot or ait , and a small island off the coast may be called a holm . A grouping of geographically or geologically related islands is called an archipelago , e . g . the ___MASK16___ .