Fatu Huku
| Fatu Huku | ||
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| Waters | Pacific Ocean | |
| Archipelago | Marquesas | |
| Geographical location | 9 ° 26 '3 " S , 138 ° 55' 5" W | |
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| surface | 1.3 km² | |
| Highest elevation | 361 m | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
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Fatu Huku (old names: Hood or Hood's Island , Roberts Island ) is an uninhabited island in the South Pacific , which geographically belongs to the southern group of the Marquesas Archipelago. Politically, it belongs to French Polynesia .
geography
Fatu Huku is located around 30 km north of the inhabited island of Hiva Oa and can be easily seen from there on a clear day. The 1.3 km² large, rocky island rises steeply from the sea. There is no coastal plain, only two smaller clusters of stony, black beach on the north coast. The interior of the island forms a densely vegetated plateau up to 361 m high. The steep slopes are largely arid.
The geological age of the island is around 2.5 million years. Fatu Huku is an upscale atoll , which can be proven by the occurrence of coral limestone on the plateau. The remnant of the former lagoon is barely recognizable as a shallow and now densely overgrown depression on the plateau. In the meantime, a new coral reef has formed on three sides around the island, but it does not protrude above the sea surface.
flora
The high plateau is covered by the indigenous grass Leptochloa xerophila, which belongs to the genus of the love grass ( Eragrostis ) . There are also clusters of Pisonia grandis and Thespesia populnea ( Portia tree ), which form dense groves, interspersed with some Sapindus saponaria , which belong to the soap tree family .
fauna
Fatu Huku is home to numerous species of sea birds that can breed there undisturbed. In the Pisonia groves, the frigate bird breeds in considerable populations. There is also the endangered Marquesa pigeon ( Alopecoenas rubescens ), a flightless bird that was probably previously distributed on all Marquesas Islands, but was exterminated by introduced domestic cats. Today it only occurs in a very narrow population on Fatu Huku and in a slightly larger population on Hatutu . As Ralph Linton reports, the bird was sacred to the indigenous people of the Marquesas.
history
A Marquesan legend has it that the lush green and fertile Fatu Huku was once inhabited by a happy people. The sea god Tana'oa ( Tangaroa ), envious of the well-being of the people, caused the sea to turn the island, which from then on rose as a steep and uninhabited rock above the surface of the sea.
Fatu Huku was probably never permanently inhabited. However, there are archaeological traces of temporary use, apparently by bird hunters and fishermen. The inhabitants of Nuku Hiva sent an expedition to Fatu Huku every year during the breeding season in order to get the coveted red Kura feathers of the red-tailed tropical bird . The feathers were an important part of the chief jewelry and a status symbol on all the Marqueses Islands.
Ancient Polynesian footpaths lead up the cliffs and in some places rough steps are carved into the rock. The Polynesians erected small piles of stones or platforms at prominent points on which offerings for good spirits could be made.
Although the discovery of the southern group of the Marquesas for Europe is attributable to the Spaniard Alvaro Mendana de Neira , he obviously overlooked the small island of Fatu Huku. It was only discovered by James Cook on April 6, 1774 , but he did not land. He named it “Hood's Island” after the 16 year old midshipman Alexander Hood , who first saw it.
The fur hunter and trader Josiah Roberts from Boston explored several islands of the Marquesas in 1793 with the ship Jefferson and the schooner Resolution built on Tahuata and also sighted Fatu Huku without entering the island. In the map of Aaron Arrowsmith (Chart of the South Pacific, 1798) the island is marked with the name "Roberts Island".
administration
Fatu Huku belongs to the commune associée Puamau of the municipality of Hiva Oa ( Commune de Hiva Oa ), which in turn is a subdivision ( Subdivision administrative des Îles Marquises ) of the High Commission of French Polynesia ( Haut-commissariat de la République en Polynésie française ) based in Papeete is subordinated.
Web link
Photo (aerial view) on Panoramio (accessed December 30, 2012)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Valérie Clouard and Alain Bonneville: Ages of seamounts, islands and plateaus on the Pacific plate ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Paris 2004, p. 15.
- ^ Dieter Mueller-Dombois, Francis R. Fosberg: Vegetation of the Tropical Pacific Islands . Springer-Verlag Berlin, 1998, ISBN 0-387-98313-9 , p. 454.
- ^ A b Ralph Linton : Archeology of the Marquesas Islands . In: Bulletin of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum , No. 23 (1925), p. 136, ISSN 0005-9439
- ↑ Karl von den Steinen : The Marquesans and their art, Vol. 2: Plastic. Studies on the development of primitive South Sea ornamentation based on personal travel experiences and the material from museums . Fines Mundi, Saarbrücken 2006, ISBN 978-3-937246-08-6 , p. 11 (unaltered reprint from the publisher Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 1928).
- ↑ John C. Beaglehole: The Life of Captain James Cook . Stanford University Press, Stanford 1992, ISBN 978-0-8047-2009-0 , p. 375.
- ↑ Amasa Delano, Narrative of Voyages and Travels in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres . EG House, Boston 1817, Volume 2, p. 25
- ↑ Marquises / Densité de population.pdf Densité de population ( Memento of the original from June 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Map)
