What is "pukao"

Pukao are the hat-like structures or topknots formerly placed on top of some moai statues on Easter Island. They were all carved from a very light red volcanic stone scoria, which was quarried from a single source at Puna Pau.

The Pukao Seamount is a submarine volcano, the most westerly in the Easter Seamount Chain or Sala y Gómez ridge. To the east are Moai (seamount) and then Easter Island. It rises over 2,500 metres from the ocean floor to within a few hundred metres of the sea surface. The Pukao Seamount is fairly young, and believed to have developed in the last few hundred thousand years as the Nazca Plate floats over the Easter hotspot.