Lava flows into the ocean from the second lava flow.

Many of the islands in the Pacific are volcanic and the steam and smoke plumes from those volcanoes could be seen over the horizon.

Finding a new island offered the Lapita and their cultural descendents the chance to establish new lineages. Pat Kirch argues that the reasons for the rapid exploration of the Pacific was as much if not more the "pull'" of finding new land as the "push" of environmental degradation.