Tromelin
| Tromelin | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Waters | Indian Ocean |
| Geographical location | 15 ° 53 '29 " S , 54 ° 31' 24" E |
 |
|
| length | 1.7 km |
| width | 700 m |
| surface | 80 ha |
| Highest elevation | 7 m |
| Residents | 3 (ward staff) 3.8 inhabitants / km² |
| main place | Station Serge Frolov |
 |
|
Tromelin is a 0.8 km² tropical island , about 440 km east of Madagascar and 580 km north of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean . Politically, it belongs to the Îles Éparses , a district of the French overseas territory Terres australes et antarctiques françaises .
geography
The oval, approximately 1700 m long, up to 700 m wide island is 450 km away from the nearest land mass, surrounded by 4000 m deep ocean and therefore difficult to reach.
The island is sandy , flat and largely bare of vegetation, except for a few low trees. The highest point is 7 m high. The topography of the surrounding sea is formed by a steep submarine slope, which already reaches depths of 1000 m 2.5 km from the island, which would be typical of a volcanic hotspot as the mechanism of formation, although it is still unexplained. The edge of the island is surrounded by a coral reef , which becomes visible when the tide is low and sits on an eroded base from the Pleistocene , which has formed since the sea level stabilized about 6000 years ago. The tidal shore is characterized by beach rock rocks, which show a stratification that slowly descends towards the sea, which corresponds to that of the clastic sediment of modern times.
The shores of Tromelin can be divided into three areas, reflecting the transport processes around the island:
- the southern shores, exposed to storms, consist of walls of rubble from coral blocks which are exposed to storms and the like. Ä. arise and partly extend beyond the Meeresnivenau
- the transition zones between the north and south banks which partly consist of the blocks and partly of coarse sand and gravel and finally
- mainly sandy areas on the northern and leeward side of the island, made of flushing gravel and coarse sand, with the northern tip of the island forming a sand spit of 125 × 225 m, the shape of which varies with the seasons and the weather.
There are dunes of various shapes on Tromelin , which are more pronounced in the north due to the wind transport of the sediments and there are caught in the more pronounced vegetation. The height of the dunes ranges from 10 cm to 250 cm in the shallow water in the northeast. Some crushers have shifted material up to 250 m. These storm deposits are most common on the windward side of the island, also because of the lack of protective vegetation.
The hollow in the south of the island covers approx. 40,000 m²; its lowest point is only 1.2 m above sea level.
There is no indigenous population on the island , but there is an important weather station called Station Serge Frolow , which is used in particular to research cyclones . The station has now been automated just like the weather stations on the other Îles Éparses; the last meteorologists from Météo-France left Tromelin in 2011. Since then, the island's crew has consisted of three civilian employees from the TAAF , who are replaced every two months.
The island's vegetation is species-poor and is dominated by the velvet leaf . As an important egg-laying place for green turtles and an important breeding site for masked boobies , red-footed boobies and fairy terns , the island has been a nature reserve since 1975 .
The island has no port , but an anchorage off the coast. There is also a short (almost 1,100 m), unpaved runway for aircraft on the island .
Climate table
| Tromelin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Climate diagram | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Tromelin
Source: wetterkontor.de
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
history
The island was discovered in 1722 by the French ship La Diane and initially called Île des Sables ( German for "sand island" ).
On the night of July 31, 1761, the Utile , a French slave ship of the French East India Company , ran aground on a coral reef on the way from Bayonne in southwest France to the "Ile de France", today's Mauritius . She had previously bought Malagasy slaves in Madagascar , although it was unclear whether she would even have been allowed to land at her destination with this cargo. In addition to 20 sailors, of the at least 150 slaves on board, at least 70 drowned in this accident because the cargo hatches were closed and some were nailed shut. The survivors (88 slaves and 122 whites) sought refuge on the island, which was only covered with barren vegetation. In the first few days, more than 20 people died because there was no drinking water on the springless island and a well had to be dug, which at least made it possible to supply brackish water . The surviving white sailors had reserved the little fresh water that had been saved for themselves, which is why black people in particular died. After two months, the surviving white sailors left the island on a raft assembled from the wreckage of the ship , leaving the surviving slaves with the promise to send help and reached Mauritius. There, however, the French governor sent by the company refused to send help because France was at war with England , an attack from India was expected and in this situation a rescue of the black slaves did not seem opportune. He feared losing another ship and, in return, having to take care of additional unwanted slaves, whose import he had previously forbidden for these reasons. This refusal sparked a brief public controversy in Mauritius, which was ultimately unsuccessful until the shipwrecked were forgotten. Two rafts later left the island and tried to reach Madagascar - the home of the slaves about 500 km to the west - but probably did not succeed.
The inhabitants of the island ate seabirds, fish, hermit crabs and turtles and used utensils and tools from the ship for their work. After first erecting tents from the rigging, they later built shelters out of coral and compacted sand, a communal oven, and clothes made from bird feathers. In addition, they managed not to let a fire go out for 15 years, even though the island was sometimes very heavy with trade winds and hurricanes . In 1776, seven women and an eight-month-old baby remained on the island. The ship La Dauphine under captain Chevalier de Tromelin, after whom the island is named today, reached the island that year and saved the survivors. The baby and his family came under the care of the new governor of Mauritius, after whose first name Jacques Moise (Moses) was baptized. To this day, it is not entirely clear how the survivors were able to hold out on the island for 15 years. Essential information about the sinking and the first time on the island comes from the logbook of the Utile , written by Hilarion Dubuisson de Keraudic , which was discovered in the maritime archive in Lorient by M. Guérout.
In 1830, Captain Laplace led a mission to locate the island. He found the still existing dwellings of the shipwrecked at the time and calculated the geographical position of the island: 15 ° 38 ′ south and 52 ° 11 ′ east.
In 1954 a permanent weather station with the Tromelin airfield was built on the island .
In 2004, under the auspices of UNESCO, a research project was started that was supposed to bring more information about the survival of the former slaves to light by means of archaeological excavations. In the four excavation campaigns since 2006, numerous tools have been recovered. The excavated remains of the stranded people's dwellings made it possible to assign them to four phases of settlement. The search for graves, however, has so far yielded no results.
Politics and administration
Tromelin was administered from Réunion from 1814 (since 1960 by the Prefect of the Overseas Department ) without belonging to Réunion itself. The island is therefore not part of the European Union . Since 2005, like the other Îles Éparses, it has been administered by the Prefect and Chief Administrator of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. With the law of February 21, 2007 Tromelin was incorporated together with the other Îles Éparses as the fifth district in the French Southern and Antarctic Territories.
The exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which is directly adjacent to that of Réunion, extends over an area of 285,300 km².
Tromelin has been claimed by Mauritius since 1976 . An agreement on joint management was signed by France and Mauritius in 2010, but has not yet been ratified by France (as of 2016).
literature
- Max Guérout, Thomas Romon: Tromelin. L'île aux esclaves oubliés . CNRS Éditions, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-271-07050-0 (French).
- Véronique Laroulandie, Christine Lefèvre: The Use of Avian Resources by the Forgotten Slaves of Tromelin Island (Indian Ocean) . In: International Journal of Osteoarchaeology . tape 24 , no. 3 , May 2014, ISSN 1047-482X , p. 407-416 , doi : 10.1002 / oa.2380 (English, freely available online through researchgate.net ).
- Matthias Schulz: Sandbank terminus . In: DER SPIEGEL 38/2014 . September 15, 2014, p. 134-138 ( article online ).
- Nick Marriner, Max Guérout, Thomas Romon, Philippe Dussouillez: Geomorphology of Tromelin, Indian Ocean . In: Comptes Rendus Geoscience . 342, No. 10, October 1, 2010, pp. 766-777. ISSN 1631-0713 . doi : 10.1016 / j.crte.2010.05.003 .
Web links
- Tromelin - Mission 2013. Website of the excavation campaign. In: archeonavale.org. Groupe de Recherche en Archeology Navale (GRAN) (French).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Administration des Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (ed.): Livret de découverte des îles Eparses: Tromelin, Glorieuses, Juan de Nova, Europa et Bassas da India . Saint-Pierre (Réunion) 2016, Les partenaires des TAAF - Météo France, p. 5 (French, online [PDF; 5.6 MB ; accessed on June 15, 2017]).
- ↑ Sarah Caceres: Etude préalable pour le classement de Réserve Naturelle des Iles Eparses. Mémoire de DESS Sciences et Gestion de l'Environnement Tropical de l'Université de la Réunion . Université de La Réunion , Saint-Denis 2002, p. 51 (French, available online through Joseph Poupin, École navale [PDF; 7.2 MB ; accessed on June 15, 2017]).
- ↑ Administration des Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (ed.): Livret de découverte des îles Eparses: Tromelin, Glorieuses, Juan de Nova, Europa et Bassas da India . Saint-Pierre (Réunion) 2016, Tromelin - Ecologie, p. 20 (French, online [PDF; 5.6 MB ; accessed on June 15, 2017]).
- ↑ La biodiversité des îles Eparses. In: taaf.fr. Administration des Terres australes et antarctiques françaises, accessed June 15, 2017 (French).
- ↑ Administration des Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (ed.): Livret de découverte des îles Eparses: Tromelin, Glorieuses, Juan de Nova, Europa et Bassas da India . Saint-Pierre (Réunion) 2016, Tromelin - Historique, p. 21 (French, online [PDF; 5.6 MB ; accessed on June 15, 2017]).
- ↑ NZZ: The slaves stayed behind. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . February 17, 2007, accessed March 21, 2018 .
- ^ John Lichfield: Shipwrecked and abandoned: the story of the slave Crusoes. In: The Independent . February 5, 2007, accessed March 21, 2018 .
- ^ Forgotten Slaves Underwater Archaeological Expedition. In: UNESCO Culture Sector. UNESCO , accessed June 15, 2017 .
- ↑ Retour de la 4e campagne de fouille archéologique sur l'île de Tromelin. Results of the fourth excavation campaign (2013). Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (Inrap), accessed on June 15, 2017 (French).
- ↑ 5 - District des îles Eparses. In: taaf.fr. Administration des Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (TAAF), accessed June 17, 2017 (French).
- ↑ Administration des Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (ed.): Livret de découverte des îles Eparses: Tromelin, Glorieuses, Juan de Nova, Europa et Bassas da India . Saint-Pierre (Réunion) 2016, L'administration, p. 4 (French, online [PDF; 5.6 MB ; accessed on June 17, 2017]).
- ↑ Hervé Gaymard : N ° 830 - Report fait au nom de la Commission des Affaires étrangères sur le projet de loi, adopté par le Sénat, authorizing l'approbation de l'accord-cadre entre le Gouvernement de la République française et le Gouvernement de la République de Maurice sur la cogestion économique, scientifique et environnementale relative à l'île de Tromelin et à ses espaces maritimes environnants. In: assemblee-nationale.fr. March 20, 2013, accessed June 17, 2017 (French).
- ↑ Administration des Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (ed.): Livret de découverte des îles Eparses: Tromelin, Glorieuses, Juan de Nova, Europa et Bassas da India . Saint-Pierre (Réunion) 2016, L'administration - La cogestion de Tromelin, p. 4 (French, online [PDF; 5.6 MB ; accessed on June 17, 2017]).
