Taveuni, the third largest of the Fiji islands, is known as the "Garden Island" due to its rich volcanic soils. The massive, elongated basaltic shield volcano includes approximately 150 volcanic cones along a NE-SW rift that extends the length of the 40-km-long island. A few cones in the central part occur to the west of the axial rift zone. At least 58 eruptions have occurred since the first known human settlements around 950-750 BCE; all of these eruptions affected the southern two-thirds of the island. A period of voluminous eruptions between about 300 and 500 CE caused abandonment of the southern part the island until about 1100 CE. The latest known eruption produced a lava flow at the southern tip sometime between about 1450 and 1650 CE.