ABSTRACT
The famed Society Islands include Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, and other high volcanic islands, central to the history of European exploration of the South Seas. Some of that history is described, such as how Captain James Cook named the island group by their proximity to each other and how French Polynesia was wrestled from the British. Although less well known than the high islands, this region includes five atolls, Tetiaroa, Tuapai, Bellingshausen, Scilly, and Mopelia, to which we add a sixth one, Îles Maria, that is in the nearby Austral Island chain. The Society Islands formed from a hotspot that is currently to the east of Tahiti, but most of the atolls are located farther to the west where the once-active volcanoes that support them have subsided and are now submerged. The dominant surface current is the trade wind-driven South Equatorial Current, and winds, waves, and tides are generally akin to those of the nearby Tuamotu Archipelago.
