Masafuera Coast

Masafuera is the westernmost of the main Juan Fernández Islands, far out in the Pacific off Chile. Its steep, deeply cut slopes form the exposed summit of a shield volcano. Seabirds nest on the island, whose isolation has encouraged the development of distinctive species. Known to mariners by the late seventeenth century, the island lay beyond the more frequently visited Masatierra and offered a remote landfall in a vast ocean.