Fatutaka

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Fatutaka (Miter Island)
Landsat satellite image of Fatutaka
Landsat satellite image of Fatutaka
Waters Pacific Ocean
Archipelago Santa Cruz Islands
Geographical location 11 ° 54 ′  S , 170 ° 12 ′  E Coordinates: 11 ° 54 ′  S , 170 ° 12 ′  E
Fatutaka (Solomon Islands)
Fatutaka
length 1.0 kmdep1
width 0.3 kmdep1
surface 18 ha
Highest elevation Mapuanga
122  m
Residents uninhabited
Fatutaka from the east, from a distance of 12 km (drawing from 1943)
Fatutaka from the east, from a distance of 12 km
(drawing from 1943)

Fatutaka ( Nicopian for "separated stone"), also known as Fatu Taka , Patutaka , Fatacca , Miter ( English for " bishop's hat "), or Fataka as an onomatopoeic transcription from the Tikopian language, is an uninhabited volcanic island in the southern Pacific Ocean . It lies in the group of the Santa Cruz Islands and politically belongs to the Temotu province of the island republic of Solomon Islands . Fatutaka is the easternmost island of the Solomon Islands and is more than 1,140 kilometers from the capital Honiara .

Natural space

geography

As the easternmost island of the Solomon Islands state, Fatutaku is located around 50 kilometers southeast of Anuta . Fatutaka rises steeply from the sea and can be clearly seen from Anuta on a clear day. Seen from the east, the island is described as "two haystacks of about the same height" with the southern one being more rugged than the other. The steep rock on its north side is reminiscent of a sailing ship. In fact, the northwestern summit is 122 meters higher than the southeastern summit, which reaches a height of around 104 meters. Located just a few meters from the north side, the rock, partly rising vertically from the sea, is around 44 meters high. The saddle between the two peaks at the isthmus, which connects the two parts of the island, sinks to about 15 meters above sea level.

General map of the Santa Cruz Islands
(Fatutaka bottom right)

The island stretches from northwest to southeast over a length of one kilometer. In the northwest it reaches its greatest width of 300 meters, while the southeastern part is only about 130 meters wide. The two parts of the island are connected by an isthmus and are about the same size. The total area is around 18 hectares. Other sources give implausibly large areas such as 1.6 km², or even 5 km². The latter is the order of magnitude for the area of ​​the submarine bank on which the island rests and which can be recognized on the satellite image by a lighter shade of blue. The information in the Lonely Planet travel guide that Fatutaka is larger than the 37 hectare Anuta also contradicts the satellite image.

How steep the rocky flanks of the island are in some places can be seen from a comparison between the width (130 meters) and height (104 meters) of the rugged southern part of the island.

geology

From a regional geological point of view, Fatutaka is located in the northern part of the New Hebrides - archipelago system and, together with the Duff Islands and Anuta, forms a chain of islands of volcanic origin, the formation of which is linked to the subduction of the Australian plate under the Pacific plate in the area of ​​the northern New Hebrides rift stands. Among other things, a back arc basin and a lake basin are created . This leads to the rise of basaltic lavas , some of which reach sea level and can form islands or groups of islands there. The plate tectonic movements are associated with numerous strong earthquakes in this region. To the east of the island chain there is another trench zone, the Vitias Trench, which is already inactive today and indicates an earlier subduction line.

So Fatutaka is of volcanic origin. Petrologically , the island consists of basaltic lava and andesite in the form of breccias , each with an increased proportion of TiO 2 . The age of the volcanism that led to the formation of the island is given as 2.2 million ± 0.1 million years.

Flora and fauna

The island is covered in trees, with the north side having more vegetation than the other sides. The coconut palms and yams that originally grew on Fatutaka were removed by the residents of the neighboring island of Anuta so that the island remained unattractive to settlers.

The island is used by the residents of the neighboring island as a bird hunting ground. Charles M. Woodford mentioned in a 1916 publication that frigate birds nest on the island. At the end of the 1920s, the American ornithologist Ernst Mayr undertook field research in Melanesia and Polynesia. On Fatutaka he spotted three species of birds: the reef freon ( Egretta sacra ), the tonga pigeon ( Ducula pacifica ) and a subspecies of the gray-capped pigeon ( Chalcophaps indica sandwichensis ). All three species are sedentary here, but only the latter two species breed on Fatutaka. However, more precise information or even an investigation of the bird population of Fatutaka is missing.

The Malaria , which is spread on many islands of the Solomons, missing on Fatutaka.

history

There is no permanent settlement on Fatutaka, the island is uninhabited.

Pre-Colonial History

Since the stony ground is not particularly fertile, the island was not used for agriculture, but is used as a fishing and hunting area. The Polynesian inhabitants of the neighboring island of Anuta used Fatutaka for fishing in westerly winds. It is also said that they hunted sharks more for their teeth, which were tied to wood, used as knives and scissors than for their meat, as Peter Dillon claimed in 1830. They also hunted birds and collected their eggs.

The higher northwest peak is called Anutas Te Ufi (the yams ) by the residents , and the southeastern peak Te Niu (the coconut ) , each after the vegetation that was previously found there. The highest point on the Te Ufi is called Mapuanga . A cave on Fatutaka is called Te Ano o Pu Tafua , translated The cave of Ariki Tafua - Ariki Tafua is the name for one of the four chiefs of the island of Tikopia . Overall, the residents of Anuta, as owners, users and experts of Fatutaka, use 30 geographical names for locations on Fatutaka, including access routes in the rock ( Roto te vai , Roto a maka ) and rock faces ( Te Maka Rai , Te Maka pu ).

From the European “discovery” to the present

The first European to describe Fatutaka was Edward Edwards (1742-1815), an officer in the British Navy and captain of the frigate HMS Pandora , who reached the island on August 12, 1791. Edwards' job was to search for mutineers of the Bounty and capture them. He gave the island the name Miter Island (German: "Mützen-Insel") because it had the shape of a bishop's cap or, more precisely, a cape of the island had this shape.

Fatutaka was taken by Great Britain on October 1, 1898, at about the same time as the other islands of the Solomon Islands. Since the Solomon Islands became independent in 1978, it has been part of the island state. Administratively it belongs to the Temotu province .

In the last week of December 2002, cyclone Zoe passed over the Santa Cruz Islands with guaranteed wind speeds of 287 km / h, possibly even up to 305 km / h.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Richard Feinberg: Polynesian Seafaring and Navigation: Ocean Travel in Anutan Culture and Society . The Kent State University Press, Kent; London 2003, ISBN 0-87338-788-0 , pp. 181 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  2. ^ A b Hydrographer of the Navy Pacific Islands Pilot Vol. II. Ninth Edition 1969: Page 243, Miter islet:
    Miter Islet (11 ° 55 'S., 170 ° 12' E.), about 26 mils south-eastward of Cherry island (Anuta) , is steep, about 400 feet (129m9) high, covered with trees, and consists of two hills and a rock, giving it the appearance of a miter. From eastward it appears like two separate haycocks, apparently both of the same height, but the southern one more rugged than the other. It is bare of vegetation, except on the northern side, and the high rock on its northern side appears like a ship under sail.
    The Islet is uninhabited, but visited occasionally by the islanders from Tikopia. It has been a protectorate of Great Britain since January 28th, 1899, and is now included in the Solomon islands protectorate.
  3. ↑ Comparative height measurements based on the drawing from 1943
  4. ↑ Size determination according to the Landsat satellite image on oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov ( memento of the original from January 27, 2016 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov
  5. ↑ John Seach: Fatutaka Island (English)
  6. ^ Dieter Mueller-Dombois, Francis Raymond Fosberg: Vegetation of the Tropical Pacific Islands . Ed .: Francis Raymond Fosberg (=  Ecological Studies . Volume 132 ). Springer Science & Business Media, 1998, ISBN 0-387-98313-9 , ISSN  0070-8356 , p. 89 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  7. ↑ David Harcombe: Solomon Islands, a travel survival kit. Lonely Planet Publications 1988, ISBN 0-86442-009-9 , page 238
  8. ^ GW Hughes: The relationship between volcanic island genesis and the Indo-Australian Pacific plate margin in the eastern outer islands, Solomon Islands. South-west Pacific . Journ. Physics of Earth, 26, 1978, pp. 123-138
  9. ↑ B. Pelletier, Y. Lafoy, F. Missegue: Morphostructure and Magnetic fabric of the North Western Fiji Basin . in: Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 20, No. 12, p. 1151ff, June 18, 1993 (English, PDF ; 525 kB)
  10. ↑ a b L. Kroenke: L. Kroenke: A Morphotectonic Interpretation of SOPACMAPS 1: 500 000 Charts - Central Solomon Islands - Southern Tuvalu ( Memento of the original from January 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . SOPAC Technical Report 220, September 1995 (English, PDF; 5.676 MB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ict.sopac.org
  11. ^ Judith A. Bennett: Pacific Forest. A History of Resource Control and Contest in Solomon Islands, c. 1800-1997 . The White Horse Press, Cambridge 2000, ISBN 1-874267-43-X . P. 33 (English)
  12. ↑ Charles M. Woodford: On some little-known Polynesian settlements in the neighborhood of the Solomon Islands , in: The Geographical Journal 48.1 (1916) 26-54.
  13. ↑ Entry on birdsofmelanesia.net (PDF, English; 88 kB)
  14. ↑ David William Steadman , Domninique Pahlavan, Patrick Kirch: Exctinction, Biogeography, and Human Exploitation of Birds on Tikiopa and Anuta, Polynesian Outliers in the Solomon Islands . Bishop Museum Occasional Papers. Volume 30, June 1990, page 120 (PDF, English; 1.928 MB)
  15. ↑ Peter Dillon: Reis naar de eilanden der Zuidzee, gedurende de jaren 1827 en 1828. Behelzende het failed the ontdekking van het lot van de La Pérouse , vol. 2, GJA Beijerinck, Amsterdam 1830, p. 21. He describes how they the teeth were fastened with a kind of rubber (gom) from a type of tree called "thamana" and with wires (draden). The Géographie universelle de Malte-Brun , Volume 4 from 1856, on the other hand, claims that it was a matter of threads (fil) (p. 181).
  16. ^ Peter Dillon: Narrative of the Discovery of the fate of La Pérouse . Hurst, Chance and co. London 1829. pp. 110/111 (English).
  17. ^ Raymond Firth : Anuta and Tikopia. Symbiotic elements in social organization . In: The Journal of the Polynesian Society , Vol. 63 No. 2, 1954, pages 87-132 (English)
  18. ↑ Grégoire Louis Domeni de Rienzi: Oceania. Third volume: Polynesia (end). Melanesia. New Holland . E. Schweizerbart's Verlagbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1840. Page 281
  19. ^ Samuel Prior: All the Voyages Round the World . William H. Colyer, New York 1844. page 319 (English)
  20. ^ David Longshore: Encyclopedia of Hurricanes, Typhoons, and Cyclones, New Edition , Infobase Publishing, New York 2009, p. 429.