The most important physics of the equator is the heat energy. I’ve written on this many times, but it is fascinating being here. Right now, all the action is north of the equator, and we in the Tahiti area have nothing but sun showers and sun. All rain and storms in the upper hemispheres come from the equator. Without this moisture and energy, we would be laminated dry deserts.
But the physics you can see is the geology of the region. The Pacific crust is a big dead zone of sinking basalt crust. This crust is only rising when there is a hotspot underneath it, a deep plume up from the mantle. It only carries non-quartz rock, black basalt. If you take two pieces of rock from the beach in cottage country, one pure quartz, and one pure black basalt, you will notice the basalt is about twice as heavy.
On this dormant island chain of Tahiti there are no active volcanoes. The plate moved past the hotspot a million years ago (+ or -). Then it was all erosion and sinking. As mentioned many times, the warmie myth of rising sea level is hocus pocus. These islands sink. Absolute sea level is not changing. Very low atolls will soon join their brothers under water.
A huge land mass like Tahiti formed a coral reef around the entire land mass. The corals can keep up with the sinking, and once they form they stay forever. Thus you have the lowlands sinking underwater and a large reef around the bunch of islands that were high points. Bora Bora has a very resistant spike. Must be fantastic rock.
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