Definition
The atoll of Mururoa, also known as Moruroa or Aopuni, lies in the south-eastern end of the Tuamotu Island Group (21°50′S, 138°53′W) in the central Pacific. Politically speaking, this island is part of the French Polynesia.
Geological setting
Mururoa is 28 km long and 11 km wide with a reef rim not exceeding 15 km2 in surface area. It falls into the open-atoll type with a large natural pass (4,500 km wide, 1–9 m deep) on its leeward side. Its volcanic basement has originated from the Pitcairn hotspot at present operating about 70 km to the south-east of Pitcairn Island (Gillot et al., 1992). The cessation of volcanic activity from about 11 to 10.5 million years favored prominent reef building. Subsidence of the volcanic shield at an average rate of 7–8 mm per millennium has been accompanied by deposition of a sedimentary pile varying between 130 and 570 m thickness (Buigues, 1997). From the end of the 1960s, in relation to nuclear testing, intensive biological, geological,...
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Bibliography
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Montaggioni, L.F. (2011). Mururoa Atoll. In: Hopley, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Modern Coral Reefs. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2639-2_116
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