Pagan (island)

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Pagan
NASA satellite image of Pagan
NASA satellite image of Pagan
Waters Pacific Ocean
Archipelago Mariana Islands
Geographical location 18 ° 7 ′  N , 145 ° 46 ′  E Coordinates: 18 ° 7 ′  N , 145 ° 46 ′  E
Location of Pagan
length 16.2 km
width 6 km
surface 47.23 km²
Highest elevation South Pagan Volcano
570  m
Residents uninhabited
main place Shomushon
(evacuated in 1981)
The volcano in the south of the island (1981)
The volcano in the south of the island (1981)

Pagan ( . Cham Pagan ; Engl .: Pagan Iceland ; Spanish (outdated): San Ignacio ) is a volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean . It is geographically part of the Mariana Islands and politically part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , an outlying area of ​​the United States . The island has been largely uninhabited since a volcanic eruption in 1981.

geography

Pagan is about 320 kilometers north of Saipan , the main island of the Northern Mariana Islands, and is the fourth largest island in the Commonwealth with 47.23 km². Pagan is a double island and consists of two active, about 570 feet high stratovolcanoes represented by an approximately 600 meters narrow isthmus are interconnected.

The southern volcano lies in a caldera about four kilometers in diameter; its elongated summit is composed of four craters . The southern part of the island with a width of about three kilometers slopes down to the coast in steep slopes with numerous cliffs . The last known eruption of the southern volcano was in 1864. In 1992 several fumaroles were active.

Mount Pagan in the northern part of the island, which is up to six kilometers wide, is historically much more active volcano. Earlier eruptions are mainly documented for the period between the 1820s and 1920s. In eruptions in the years 1872 to 1873 and 1925 lava flows emerged . The volcano lies in the center of a caldera with a diameter of approximately six kilometers, which occupies large parts of the North Island. The caldera probably collapsed in the Holocene and was replenished by subsequent volcanic eruptions.

West of Mount Pagan is a depression about two kilometers in diameter, which is interpreted as a maar based on the surrounding deposits of phreatomagmatic explosions . Eruptions in the area of ​​the maar occurred around 1800 and around the 14th century. In the maar is the Laguna Sanhalom (also Inner Lake ), which in the 1970s had an area of ​​17 hectares and a maximum depth of 23 meters. A second lake, Laguna Sanhiyon or Lake Laguna , with an area of ​​16 hectares and a maximum depth of 20 meters is located directly on the west coast of the North Island. Both bodies of water contain brackish water ; in the case of Laguna Sanhalom this is attributed to thermal springs ; Sea water can penetrate the Laguna Sanhiyon when the sea is rough .

The climate of the island of Pagan is characterized by the northeast trade wind, which, except in late spring and early summer, ensures frequent heavy showers . The average annual precipitation is 1800 to 2000 millimeters. Typhoons can occur especially between August and December . The average annual temperature is estimated to be around 28 ° C.

history

Archaeological finds indicate a settlement in Pagan several centuries BC . From a European perspective, the island was discovered in 1669 by the Spanish missionary Diego Luis de Sanvitores . The island was inhabited by Chamorros ; In 1695 all residents were deported to Saipan about 300 km away and from there three years later to Guam .

A Spanish colony until 1899 , Pagan was leased to companies from the 1850s. The first coconut plantations were established in the 1870s. Around 1880 Adolph Capelle, a merchant from Braunschweig , was the leaseholder of the island. He exported copra and employed about 20 seasonal workers on the island, who came from the Caroline Islands and had their main residence on the islands of Saipan or Guam.

After the Northern Mariana Islands were sold to the German Empire in 1899, Pagan was part of the German New Guinea colony until 1914 . At that time the island was leased to the Pagan Society . The company, which mainly dealt in copra, was founded by two Chamorros and a Japanese; In 1905 the Japanese became a German partner. When the German district official Georg Fritz visited the island in May 1901, 137 people lived in the 30 huts of a workers' settlement on the west coast of the northern part of the island. 200 tons of copra were extracted annually. To a lesser extent, corn, sweet potatoes , pineapples and bananas were also grown. In July and September 1905, in September 1907 and in December 1913, severe typhoons almost completely destroyed the coconut plantations. As a result, the Pagan Society got into economic difficulties, so that the plantings could no longer be managed systematically. According to estimates from 1912, there were 385 hectares of coconut plantations on Pagan .

At the beginning of the First World War , ships of the German East Asia Squadron gathered near Pagan in order to set off for South America. Japan still occupied the island in 1914 and administered it from 1919 to 1944 as part of the Japanese South Seas Mandate , a mandate area of the League of Nations . In World War II, Japan secured the island militarily. When Pagan surrendered in early September 1945, 3200 people lived on the island; these included 2,600 Japanese military personnel and 300 Japanese civilians. 300 people from Saipan Island worked in agriculture, mainly in coconut plantations . In 1939 and 1940 an estimated 1,500 tons of copra were exported per year; other export products were cotton and sweet potatoes. Ropes were made on the island and a small amount of sulfur was mined. During the Japanese rule, numerous houses, barracks and shops were built, especially in the village of Shomushon in the north-west, but also in the area of ​​the two lakes and along the coast. Numerous traces of the Japanese occupation and the Second World War can still be found on the island today.

After the end of the war, the US Navy maintained a small facility on Pagan. The population decreased drastically at first, later more slowly. From 1950, most of the residents lived in a settlement north of Laguna Sanhiyon , before the residents moved to Shomushon on Apaan Bay in the northwest of the island in the early 1970s.

Rocks in northeast Pagan

According to an inventory completed in early 1978 as part of a development plan, Shomushon was officially home to 85 people from nine families. The actual number of inhabitants fluctuated at the end of 1977 between 37 and 51 people from seven families, as some people were temporarily or permanently staying on the main island of Saipan. In terms of public facilities in Shomushon, there was a church, a copra warehouse, an infirmary and a schoolhouse. The infirmary and schoolhouse were built in the early 1970s by the Seabees , a construction team from the US Navy, as plywood constructions and had considerable structural defects. Thirteen children in the first seven grades were taught in the school; older students attended schools on Saipan and stayed with relatives there. A water supply , also built by the SeaBees, was defective; the islanders supplied themselves from cisterns that came from the time of Japanese rule. To power two were aggregates with an output of 20 kW and an emergency generator with 10 kW. There was no regulated sewage and waste disposal ; Household waste was deposited in the vicinity of the settlement.

According to the inventory, air taxis were the main mode of transport between Pagan and the main island of Saipan. Small, twin-engine aircraft operated. To the south of the settlement there was an approximately 750-meter-long airstrip , which was built during the Japanese rule. The landing stage at Apaan Bay was in a poor structural condition and could only be used by ships with a shallow draft. Larger ships anchored in the deeper part of the bay and were emptied . There was a radio in the infirmary that was used for administrative purposes but also for medical advice to the island's paramedic. The roads, which were also built during the Japanese rule, were mostly in poor condition. There were two jeeps , a tractor and a motorcycle on the island . Most of the transports on the island were made with animal-drawn carts.

Agriculture and fishing formed the economic basis of the islanders, with covering their own needs playing an important role. There were an estimated 200 cattle and 400 pigs on Pagan. Feral goats were also hunted. In 1976 around 75 tons of copra were sold, bringing in about 13,000 US dollars . In the inventory, the small amount of copra was attributed to damage caused by Typhoon Jean 1968. In addition to copra, palm thieves , a type of crustacean, and fruit bats were sold to Saipan. The fruit bats were the only endemic species of mammal on the island and were hunted as a delicacy. Saipan traders visited the island quarterly by ship and sold clothes, groceries, cigarettes, alcohol and tools. In the inventory, it was considered likely that the islanders were being taken advantage of in these purchases.

Volcanic eruptions from 1981

Steam plume of Mount Pagan in March 2012 (image from the International Space Station )

Mount Pagan erupted on May 15, 1981 . During the eruption with a strength of four on the volcanic explosion index (VEI), an eruption cloud rose, which, according to various reports, reached a height of 13 to 20 kilometers. At the volcano, two lava flows, consisting mainly of ʻAʻā lava , emerged and flowed north and south-west. A large part of the arable land on the island and part of the landing strip were showered by the lava flows. On May 16, 53 people were evacuated from the island by ship. When the outbreak occurred, some of the cattle perished immediately; other animals later starved to death, as the vegetation was largely destroyed. The eruption had been preceded by earthquakes since March 1981 , which became more frequent and most recently damaged buildings.

The volcanic eruption lasted until 1985; there were further, mostly smaller eruptions in 1987, 1988, 1992, 1993, 1996, 2006, 2009 and 2010. Even after 2010, steam and gases leaked from the crater.

With the evacuation of the population in May 1981, the administrative headquarters of the Northern Islands Municipality was moved from Shomushon to Saipan. The residents of the island petitioned for their return to Pagan. This is rejected by the authorities, citing the continuing threat from the volcano. In 2007 there were five seasonal residents on the island.

According to plans by a Japanese investor group, rubble and debris from the March 2011 tsunami in Japan should be deposited on Pagan . After protests, the group of investors temporarily postponed the plans in May 2012. The investor group intends to continue mining pozzolanic volcanic ash on Pagan . In the meantime (2013), there has been widespread protest against current plans by the US military to use the entire island as an ammunition test and bomb dropping area, including from environmental associations that highlight the island's biodiversity, but also the rights of the inhabitants of Pagan.

In 2009, the German writer Judith Schalansky described the evacuation of the population of Pagan after the volcanic eruption of 1981 in her atlas of the remote islands .

literature

  • Frank A. Trusdell, Richard B. Moore, Maurice K. Sako: Preliminary geologic map of Mount Pagan volcano, Pagan Island, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. US Geological Survey, Open-File Report 2006-1386. Online: Map (PDF, 1.3 MB) and text (PDF, 781 kB).
  • Russell E. Brainard et al .: Coral reef ecosystem monitoring report of the Mariana Archipelago: 2003-2007. (= PIFSC Special Publication , SP-12-01) NOAA Fisheries, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center 2012 ( Chapter Pagan (English, PDF, 19.2 MB)).

Web links

Commons : Pagan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Pagan - Eruptive History in the Global Volcanism Program (English, accessed December 31, 2012).
  2. ↑ Recent small ash eruption; long-period earthquakes and tremor; inflation monthly report 06/1992 in the Global Volcanism Program (English, accessed December 31, 2012).
  3. ↑ Trusdell, Moore, Sako: Preliminary geologic map , page 9 (English, accessed on 31 December 2012).
  4. ↑ Trusdell, Moore, Sako: Preliminary geologic map , page 6 (English, accessed on 31 December 2012).
  5. ↑ Trusdell, Moore, Sako: Preliminary geologic map , p. 5 (English, accessed December 31, 2012).
  6. ^ Pacific Planning and Design Consultants: Physical Development Master Plan for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Volume V, Pagan, Government Printing Office , January 1978, p. 10 (accessed January 1, 2013).
  7. ↑ Trusdell, Moore, Sako: Preliminary geologic map , p. 4 (English, accessed December 31, 2012).
  8. ↑ Consultants, Development Master Plan , p. 8 (accessed January 1, 2013).
  9. ↑ Consultants, Development Master Plan , p. 16 (accessed January 1, 2013).
  10. ↑ Gerd Hardach: King Copra. The Mariana Islands under German rule 1899–1914. Steiner, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-515-05762-5 , pp. 23f, 32, 46.
  11. ^ Georg Fritz: Journey to the northern Marianas. In: Communications from explorers and scholars from the German protected areas , 1902 (15), pp. 96–118, here p. 109f (pdf, 3.7 MB).
  12. ↑ Hardach, König Kopra , pp. 124f, 133, 135-137.
  13. ↑ Hardach, König Kopra , p. 199.
  14. ^ Consultants, Development Master Plan , pp. 16-18, 29 (accessed January 1, 2013).
  15. ↑ a b Pagan at the Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center (PIBHMC) of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (English, accessed December 30, 2012).
  16. ↑ Consultants, Development Master Plan , p. 17 (accessed January 1, 2013).
  17. ↑ Consultants, Development Master Plan , p. 12 (fauna), 17f (population), 19, 29 (economy), 35 (health care), 36 (education), 38 (water supply), 46 (electricity supply), 48 (wastewater disposal) , 49 (waste disposal), 52 (radio communication), 53f (airfield), 57 (landing stage), 59 (roads) (English, accessed January 1, 2013).
  18. ↑ Large tephra cloud; lava flows; 53 evacuated (monthly report 04/1981), Strong activity ends; USGS observations summarized (monthly report 05/1981) in the Global Volcanism Program (English, accessed January 2, 2013).
  19. ↑ Weekly reports from October 2010 in the Global Volcanism Program (English, accessed January 2, 2013).
  20. ↑ Haidee V. Eugenio: No more tsunami debris. Japanese investors will still mine pozzolan. ( Memento of the original from February 16, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.saipantribune.com 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. In: Saipan Tribune , June 1, 2012 (accessed January 1, 2013).
  21. ↑ See PAGAN ISLAND - TOO BEAUTIFUL TO BOMB , Sierra Club website , September 16, 2013.
  22. ^ Judith Schalansky: Pocket atlas of the remote islands. Fifty islands that I've never been and never will be. Fischer, Frankfurt 2011, ISBN 978-3-596-19012-6 , pp. 210-213.