Motu Iti (Marquesas)
| Motu Iti | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Waters | Pacific Ocean | |
| Archipelago | Marquesas | |
| Geographical location | 8 ° 40 ′ 48 ″ S , 140 ° 37 ′ 0 ″ W | |
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| length | 670 m | |
| width | 565 m | |
| surface | 20 ha | |
| Highest elevation | 220 m | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
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Motu Iti , other name Hatu Iti , former names: Franklin's Island, Les Deux Frères, Hergest Rocks , is a small island (iti = Polynesian small) in the southeastern Pacific Ocean that belongs to the Marquesas archipelago .
geography
The uninhabited island is 42 kilometers northwest of Nuku Hiva , the largest island in the Marquesas. Motu Iti is actually made up of several tiny islets, all of which rise from the same basaltic base. In the east of the main island, which is only 0.2 km² in size, there is still a 300 × 80 m measuring, 76 m protruding rock hump and two tiny rocky reefs. The main island is 670 m long, 565 m wide and reaches a height of 220 meters. It is a very young volcanic island in terms of geological history and consists mainly of basalt rocks. Because of its low geological age, Motu Iti is not yet surrounded by a coral reef rising above the sea surface .
The steep flanks of the main island rise directly from the ocean and are crowned by a high plateau. The highest point (without a name) is in the northern third of the island and is 220 meters. The closed, almost vertical cliffs of the inaccessible coast and the heavy surf make landing extremely difficult.
Flora and fauna
flora
The low-growing, thin vegetation of the high plateau consists of only four species. It is dominated by Leptochloa xerophila , a grass that is related to the love grass ( Eragrostis ). There are also larger patches of Portulaca lutea , a low-growing plant with thick, fleshy leaves that is known in Hawaii under the Polynesian name "ihi". Occasionally the ferns Phymatosorus scolopendria , called “lauae” in Hawaii, and Microsorum grossum can also be found in damp and protected crevices . The botanist Steve Perlman of the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Hawaii , who visited the island in 1988 as part of the Fatuiva Expedition of the Smithsonian Institution , attributes the sparse plant cover to the grazing of sheep that Europeans probably abandoned there at some point.
fauna
On Motu Iti and the larger offshore rock reef, 23 species of seabirds occur, 16 of which also nest there. You will find ideal nesting sites on the uninhabited island. The most common species are: Phoenix Petrels ( Pterodroma alba ), Sooty Terns ( Onychoprion fuscatus ), shearwaters Puffinus Iherminieri and Puffinus pacificus and boobies .
In addition to the Pacific rat ( Rattus exulans ), which is a serious problem for bird colonies today, two types of reptiles are found: the skink Cryptoblepharus poecilopleurus and the four-clawed gecko (Gehyra mutilata) .
Three species of spiders, two species of land crabs and the ant Monomorium liliuokalanii , an indigenous species of the Marquesas, live on the main island .
history
The name Motu Iti is of Polynesian origin and means "small island", but Motu Iti was probably not permanently settled by Polynesian natives, as no fresh water sources are known. However, there is evidence for the - perhaps only intermittent - presence of Polynesians. In 1988 the botanist Steve Perlman found wall remains of unknown origin and unknown age on the high plateau. The population of the Pacific rat, which was brought along as a food animal by Polynesian seafaring and spread to the islands, may also be considered an indication of the presence of Polynesians.
Joseph Ingraham , an American merchant captain who passed the island in sight on April 20, 1791, describes Motu Iti as well wooded and "inhabited" because fires were lit as the ship passed. He named the island Franklin's Island after the American President Benjamin Franklin .
The next visitor, only two months later on June 22, 1791, was the French circumnavigator Étienne Marchand , who, however, also only sailed past the island. He named them Les Deux Frères (The Two Brothers) after the two Baux brothers from Marseille who had financed his expedition.
The British naval officer Richard Hergest called the island Hergest Rocks when he passed it on March 30, 1792 with the Daedalus , the supply ship of the Vancouver expedition .
The first scientists to set foot on Motu Iti on September 19, 1922, were ornithologists Rollo H. Beck (1870–1950) and WB Jones from the American Whitney South Seas Expedition.
Today Motu Iti belongs politically to the French Overseas Zealand ( Pays d'outre-mer - POM ) French Polynesia and to the commune associée Taiohae of the municipality of Nuku Hiva .
Web link
- Photo (aerial view) on Panoramio , accessed January 20, 2013
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Dieter Mueller-Dombois & F. Raymond Fosberg: Vegetation of the Tropical Pacific Islands, New York 1998, page 457
- ↑ Alice E. Gripp & Richard G. Gordon: Young tracks of hotspots and current plate velocities; Geophysical Journal International, Vol. 150, 2002, p. 325
- ↑ a b c d Julie Champeau, Jean-Francois Butaud, Susan M. Waugh & Steven Cranwell: The first comprehensive bird survey of Hatu-iti Island, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia. In: Marine Ornithology, Vol. 39 (2), 2011, pp. 255-259
- ↑ BirdLife - International Pacific Partnership Secretariat, E-Bulletin No. 1 from April-June 2010, p. 3 [1] (PDF; 469 kB), accessed on January 22, 2013
- ↑ National Tropical Botanical Garden Hawaii Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 29, 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. Retrieved January 22, 2013
- ↑ Janet M. Wilmshurst, Atholl J. Anderson, Thomas FG Higham and Trevor H. Worthy: Dating the late prehistoric dispersal of Polynesians to New Zealand using the commensal Pacific rat. In: PNAS . Volume 105, No. 22, 2008, pp. 7676-7680
- ^ Account of a recent discovery of Seven Islands in the South Pacific Ocean, by Joseph Ingraham, Citizen of Boston, and Commander of the Brigantine Hope. . . In: Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society For the Year 1793. Vol. II., Boston 1793, p. 22
