Kenneth Maclean, age 14, of Glendale, Ariz., for his question:

CAN YOU TELL US SOMETHING ABOUT EASTER ISLAND?

Easter Island is a triangular shaped island belonging to Chile. It is located in the South Pacific Ocean about 2,300 miles west of the Chilean coast. The island is also called Rapa Nui. The island is formed of three extinct volcanoes. Swept by strong trade winds, the area is warm throughout the year.

Indigenous vegetation consists mainly of grasses. Potatoes, sugar cane, taro roots and tropical fruits are grown in the fertile soil. Easter Island's prime source of fresh water is the rain that gathers in the crater lakes. Area of the island is about 45 square miles and only about 2,000 persons live there now.

In 1722 a substantial number of Polynesians inhabited the island, but disease and raids by slave traders reduced the number to fewer than 200 by the late 19th century. The population has now built up again with intermarriage between the Polynesians and the Chileans.

The island was named by a Dutch explorer who landed on Easter Day in 1722. Then the Chilean government annexed the island in 1888.

Easter Island is important as the richest site of the megaliths of the Pacific island groups. Megaliths are ancient carved stones of giant size.

Very little is known about the people who made the megaliths. One belief is that settlement of Easter Island took place about 18 centuries ago, although some scholars contend that the settlement occured more recently. Evidence suggests that the island's original inhabitants were of South American origin. The ancestors of the present Polynesian population are though to have traveled in canoes from the Marquesas Islands, massacred the inhabitants and made the island their home.

Many archaeologists believe there were once many megaliths and about 600 statues. About 100 statues still stand. They vary in height from 10 to 40 feet. The tall stone statues are carved into human form. Carved from tuff, a soft volcanic rock, they consist of huge heads with elongated ears and noses.

Material for the statues was quarried from the crater called Rano Raraku, where modern explorers found an immense unfinished statue 68 feet long. Many of the statues on platforms bore cylindrical, brimmed crowns of red tuff. The largest crown weighs approximately 27 tons.

Largest of the extant stone monuments are the great burial platforms, called ahus, which were used to support rows of statues. The ahus were situated on bluffs and in other positions commanding a view of the sea. Each ahu was constructed of neatly fitted stone blocks set without mortar.

The burial platform usually supported four to six statues,although one ahu, known as Tongariki, carried 15 statues. Within many of the ahus, vaults house individual or group burials.