8/25/2008

The Key...?

Almost a week ago I showed you the island depicted in the photos in Captain Gault's stateroom: Ni'ihau.
Yesterday I realized of something in common between this island and our Island... or, at least, between Ni'ihau and one of the maps of the Island.
I noticed that one zone of Ni'ihau is very similar to one particular landmark in Ben's Radio Tower Map:
This is Ni'ihau, one of the oldest island in the state of Hawaii.
In the most southern part of this island there's a "strange rocky formation", strangely shaped.
Let's take a closer look.



This is the part I was talking about. It appears its name is Kawaihoa Pt.
For those who didn't realize it yet, let's take a look to Ben's map.










The upper right part of the map is very similar to Kawaihoa Pt. in Ni'ihau. And probably they have also the same geological formation.










After a couple hours of research I found that Kawaihoa Pt. is a so-called "tuff cone". On various websites it is explained it is the product of a phreatomagmatic eruption, caused by the interactions between magma and water; though, maybe because my knowledge in volcanology is not that great, I didn't understand if a tuff cone is what remains of the crater or is just the real product of the eruption... If someone can clarify this aspect, it would be great.
Anyway, if all of this is right, than we can conclude that the beach camp is really near a volcanic crater (or what remains of it). Looking at Rousseau's map, there seems to be only one volcano on the Island (not sure about this, though). If this is really the case, then we can firmly conclude that the beach camp is somewhere east of the volcano (this is deduced by looking at Ben's map). So, hopefully, my map of the various location of the Island is right for the most part... At least, in a geological sense of it ;) .

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