Marquesas Islands

The Marquesas Islands are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, in the southern Pacific Ocean roughly 1,370 kilometers northeast of Tahiti. Most of the fifteen islands were built by the Marquesas hotspot, an upwelling of magma beneath the Pacific Plate, and range in age from about 1.3 million years old (Fatu Hiva) to about 6 million years old (Eiao). The six inhabited islands have a combined land area of 1,049 square kilometers and a highest point of 1,230 meters at Mount Oave on Ua Pou. The islands are part of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France, and were first settled by Polynesians from West Polynesia between roughly 1025 and 1290 AD.