Rapa Nui, in the southeastern Pacific, is among the world’s most isolated inhabited islands. On the northeastern shoreline, the white sand crescent of Anakena Beach forms the backdrop for a signature megalithic structure. Ahu Nau Nau features a row of stone figures (moai) on a massive stone platform. Island tradition identifies this location as the landing site of Polynesians who founded the first island settlement; recent archeological evidence supports this.

Most grains represent shore and reef dwellers. Larger porous flakes are from green coralline alga Halimeda. Hard coral fragments are dense, like the stained chunks and vertical pitted rod near center. Yellowish spindles are from soft corals. A delicate branch, running left-right, was a bryozoan colony. Limpet-like shells are probably Siphonaria, an intertidal snail. A high-spired cerithid snail occurs below center; glassy white snails include one with a drill hole from a predator. The raised tubercule lower right is from a sea urchin test; urchin spine fragments appear upper right and lower left.