Coastal Groundwater Seeps on Rapa Nui

Summary

Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) is a remarkably resource-poor volcanic island. Significantly, it lacks surface streams found on more tropical Polynesian islands, other than several remote access volcanic crater lakes. Due to the island’s highly permeable, volcanic subsurface, rainwater infiltrates rapidly and becomes groundwater. Only along the coast does the water table intersect the topography to form seeps or springs. We hypothesize these seeps and springs were a primary source of fresh water for the prehistoric inhabitants of the island. In this study, we measured salinity and temperature just below the ocean surface in transects along the coast. Our findings show a marked decrease in salinity and temperature, indicating the proximity to freshwater seeps. Significant groundwater discharge was detected in the areas of La Perouse, Anakena, and Vaihu. These findings provide a foundation of spatial constraints to test hypotheses about settlement patterns and prehistoric land use.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage