Sea-Floor Topography and Morphology of the Superswell Region

The islands of French Polynesia were discovered and populated by Polynesians between 500 B.G. and A.D. 500. European exploration of the region began in the seventeenth century. The main island groups (Society, Marquesas, Tuamotu, and Austral) have long been known, but the submarine topography has only been explored in the past fifty years using conventional echo sounders, and only in the past twenty years using higher-resolution multibeam sonar systems.