Japanese air attacks on the Mariana Islands 27 in preparation for operations against Japan itself. The USAAF bases in the Mariana Islands were within range of a number of Japanese air bases in the Pacific. These included Wake Island to the east, Truk and the Gilbert and Marshall Islands to the southeast, Woleai to the south and Yap to the southwest. To the north the Japanese had air bases in the Nampo Shoto chain of islands and Bonin Islands, which included three airstrips on Iwo Jima. Several of the minor islands in the Mariana chain also remained in Japanese hands, and there were airfields on Rota and
Shield volcano contains at least 43 major volcanoes, and Meiji Seamount at its terminus near the Kuril–Kamchatka Trench is 85 million years old. The volcanoes follow a distinct evolutionary pattern of growth and death. The chain includes the second largest volcano on Earth, Mauna Loa, which stands above sea level and reaches a further below the waterline and into the crust, approximately of rock. Kīlauea, meanwhile, is one of the most active volcanoes on Earth, with the current ongoing eruption having begun in January 1983. The Galápagos Islands are an isolated set of volcanoes, consisting of shield volcanoes and lava plateaus, located