Isla Salas y Gómez facts for kids

Aerial view of Salas y Gómez, looking east
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Quick facts for kids Geography
Location	Location of Salas y Gómez Island in the Pacific Ocean
Adjacent bodies of water	Pacific Ocean
Total islands	1
Area	15 ha (37 acres)
Highest elevation	30 m (100 ft)
Administration
Chile
Region	Valparaíso
Province	Isla de Pascua
Commune	Isla de Pascua

Isla Salas y Gómez, also known as Isla Sala y Gómez, is a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean. It belongs to Chile and no one lives there. Some people think it's the easternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle. This is a large area in the Pacific Ocean where many islands share similar cultures.

The island and the waters around it are a special protected area. It's called Parque Marino Salas y Gómez. This huge marine park covers 150,000 square kilometers. It helps protect the ocean and its creatures.

Geography of Salas y Gómez Island

Isla Salas y Gómez is very far from the mainland. It is 3,210 kilometers west of Chile. It's also 391 kilometers east-northeast of Easter Island. Easter Island is the closest land to Salas y Gómez.

What Does the Island Look Like?

Salas y Gómez is made of two small rocks. The western rock is smaller, about 4 hectares in size. The eastern rock is larger, about 11 hectares. A narrow strip of land, called an isthmus, connects them. This strip is about 30 meters wide.

The whole island is about 15 hectares (0.15 square kilometers). It stretches 770 meters from northwest to southeast. The highest point is 30 meters above the sea. It's on the eastern rock, close to a 10-meter-high cliff.

Water and Landing on the Island

The island often gets covered in saltwater spray from the ocean. Its shoreline has many tidepools. These are small pools of water left behind when the tide goes out.

Landing on the island is very hard. This is because most of the shoreline is made of cliffs. Boats can only land when the sea is very calm.

There is no constant source of freshwater on the island. But sometimes, a rainwater pool forms in a dip on the eastern rock. This pool can be 75 meters wide. It's super important for the many seabirds living there. Even if the surface looks dry, the sand underneath is still wet. This flat, sandy spot is also the only place where helicopters can land.

In 1994, the Chilean Navy put a special beacon on the island. This beacon helps ships navigate. They also installed a tsunami warning system. Since then, the island has been named a nature sanctuary. This means it's a protected place for nature.

History of Salas y Gómez Island

How the Island Got Its Name

The people of Easter Island have their own name for it. In the Rapa Nui language, it's called Motu Motiro Hiva. This means (Bird's) Islet on the way to Hiva. Hiva is a name for faraway lands. It's also the name for the mythical homeland of the Polynesian people.

From Easter Island, Salas y Gómez is almost in the opposite direction from the Marquesas Islands. The next land "behind" Salas y Gómez would be the coast of South America. This fact made Thor Heyerdahl wonder if people from Polynesia and South America had met before Europeans arrived.

The name Salas y Gómez comes from two Spanish explorers. They were José Salas Valdés and José Manuel Gómez. They were the first to describe the island in detail. This happened after their visit on October 18, 1805. Sometimes, the island is called Isla Sala y Gómez, but "Sala" is a mistake.

Who Visited the Island?

No one has ever lived on the island permanently. However, the people of Easter Island knew about it. They sometimes visited to collect young birds and eggs. They believed the gods Make-make and Huau protected the seabirds. This made landing on the island difficult. Because of these old ties to Easter Island, Salas y Gómez might be seen as part of Polynesia. If so, it would be the easternmost land in Polynesia. Usually, Easter Island gets that title.

The first European to see the island was José Salas Valdés. He was a Spanish sailor. He saw it on August 23, 1793. Later, another Spaniard, José Manuel Gómez, explored it. The island is named after these two explorers. Between 1793 and 1917, people recorded visits in many years, including 1805, 1806, 1817, 1825, 1875, and 1917.

Political Control of the Island

Chile officially claimed Salas y Gómez in 1888. The Chilean Navy managed the island. On March 1, 1966, the island became part of the Isla de Pascua area. Then, on July 25, 1974, this area was reorganized into the Easter Island Province.

Protecting the Ocean Around the Island

On October 6, 2010, Chile's President Sebastián Piñera announced something big. He created the Parque Marino Sala y Gómez. This is a huge Marine Protected Area of 150,000 square kilometers. It's also called Parque Marino Motu Motiro Hiva.

The idea for this marine park started in 2008. Scientists at a Deepsea Coral Symposium suggested protecting the underwater mountains near Salas y Gómez. In 2009, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF Chile) published a scientific report. This report showed why the area needed protection.

Organizations like Oceana and National Geographic also worked hard. They studied the area and showed how important it was for nature. They encouraged its protection. These groups are still planning more trips to the area. They want to create a conservation plan. They also hope to make the protected area even bigger. They want it to cover the entire Exclusive Economic Zone around the island. This zone is a special ocean area where a country has rights to explore and use marine resources.

Geology of Salas y Gómez Island

Salas y Gómez is a volcanic high island. This means it's the top of a very tall mountain. This mountain rises about 3,500 meters from the ocean floor. Scott Reef, located 1.5 kilometers northeast, is another peak of the same underwater mountain. It's only 25 meters below the surface.

Salas y Gómez is part of the Salas y Gómez Ridge. This is a long chain of underwater mountains. Easter Island is also part of this ridge. These two islands are the only places where this mountain chain rises above sea level. There are many more underwater mountains, called seamounts, in this chain. The ridge stretches 2,232 kilometers eastward.

Salas y Gómez is the fourth youngest mountain in this chain. The chain is forming because the Nazca Plate is moving over a hot spot in the Earth's mantle. The two youngest mountains, Pukao and Moai, are seamounts west of Easter Island.

Plant Life on Salas y Gómez Island

View of Sala y Gómez

Salas y Gómez and Easter Island are part of a special ecoregion. This is called the Rapa Nui subtropical broadleaf forests. However, Salas y Gómez is mostly bare. It has no forests. Only four types of land plants grow there. One of them is Asplenium obtusatum, a type of fern. It only grows in protected spots at higher parts of the island.

Animal Life on Salas y Gómez Island

Besides many kinds of insects, the only land animals are seabirds. About a dozen different types of seabirds use the island as a rookery. This is a place where they gather to breed and raise their young. In 1985, scientists estimated these numbers of adult birds:

These numbers can change a lot each year. This is often due to weather conditions. For example, in 1986, the total number of birds was much lower.

Marine Animals Around the Island

The ocean around Salas y Gómez is full of life. You can find many littoral crustaceans. These are creatures like crabs and shrimp that live near the shore. There are also echinoidea (sea urchins) and many kinds of reef fish.

Several types of sharks live there too. Swimmers have said the sharks are "curious" but not aggressive. Scientists don't know much about the ocean animals around Easter Island and Salas y Gómez. But they think these waters might be important breeding grounds for large whales. This includes humpback, southern blue, and pygmy blue whales.

See also

In Spanish: Isla Salas y Gómez para niños