Tofua

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tofua
NASA satellite image (Geocover 2000) Tofua is the larger island. Kao is to the northeast
NASA satellite image (Geocover 2000)
Tofua is the larger island. Kao is to the
northeast
Waters Pacific Ocean
Archipelago Ha'apai
Geographical location 19 ° 45 ′ 0 ″  S , 175 ° 4 ′ 0 ″  W Coordinates: 19 ° 45 ′ 0 ″  S , 175 ° 4 ′ 0 ″  W
Tofua (Tonga)
Tofua
length 9.7 km
width 7.7 km
surface 55.63 km²
Highest elevation 515  m
Residents uninhabited
main place Manaka (Historic / Abandoned)
Location of Tofua in the northwest of the Ha'apai group
Location of Tofua in the northwest of the Ha'apai group

Tofua is a volcanic island in the Ha'apai group of the Tonga Islands and is located in the Pacific Ocean . It has an area of ​​55.63 km² and has been uninhabited since 2006.

geography

Tofua and Kao Island, 3.4 kilometers to the northeast, belong together with the rest of the Ha'apai Islands to the Kingdom of Tonga. Within the Ha'apai group, the two relatively large islands are located in the northwest. The water depth between Tofua and Kao is around two thousand meters.

Most of the island is protected as a Tofua National Park.

geology

The caldera of the volcano with steep walls has a diameter of 5 kilometers and includes a freshwater lake whose level is about 30 meters above the sea level. Three volcanic cones later formed on the north shore of the Caldera Lake, the northernmost of which, Lofia, with a 70 m wide and 120 m deep crater, was active several times in historical times: 1774, 1792, 1854, 1885, 1906, 1958–1960, 1993, 2004, 2006 and from 2008 to 2011. The highest point on the island with a height of 515 meters is on the edge of the caldera.

history

James Cook sailed between Tofua and the inactive Kao Volcano in 1774, but did not land.

On April 28, 1789, William Bligh was the first European to set foot on the island. He reached Tofua on the same day he and 18 loyal sailors were abandoned by the Bounty (the so-called mutiny on the Bounty ) and stayed four days to stock up on provisions. However, since he could not negotiate with the hostile locals, he fled on May 2, 1789. One of the men, John Norton (helmsman on board the Bounty), was killed with stones.

In 2008, the Swiss professional snowboarder and adventurer Xavier Rosset lived for 300 days eremitical on the uninhabited island, which claims the self-experiment for self-discovery . The only equipment he had with him was a satellite phone, which he could use to communicate with a doctor, a machete , a pocket knife, a lighter , a first aid kit and a camera along with a solar panel for charging the batteries.

Economy and Infrastructure

Tofua is no longer inhabited, but is used agriculturally to grow kava . The few men who occasionally stay on the island for this purpose use the huts in the abandoned village of Manaka on the east coast of the island as accommodation. Other settlements on the island were Hota'ane in the west and Hokula in the north. The 1996 census counted five people, but the island has been uninhabited since 2006.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A listing of the administrative units in Tonga. GeoHive.com, last accessed October 7, 2010. (English)
  2. ^ Tofua in the Island Directory. islands.unep.ch, last accessed on October 7, 2010. (English)
  3. ↑ Monika Hippold: 300 days lonely in the Pacific - "I miss everything" . In: Spiegel Online . October 7, 2010, accessed October 7, 2010.
  4. ↑ Result for Tonga Population Cenus 2006 . ( Memento of March 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Kingdom of Tonga, Statistics Department, August 13, 2006, p. 5. (PDF file, English; 157 kB)