Mehetiʻa

Mehetia
Native name:
Mehetiʻa
Coastal view of Osnaburg Island, now Mehetia
Geography
LocationPacific Ocean
Coordinates17°52′S 148°04′W / 17.867°S 148.067°W / -17.867; -148.067
ArchipelagoSociety Islands
Total islands1
Major islandsMehetia
Area2.3 km2 (0.89 sq mi)
Highest elevation435 m (1427 ft)
Highest pointMont Fareura
Administration
French Polynesia
Windward Islands
Taiarapu-Est
Demographics
Populationuninhabited
Mont Fareura
NASA Geocover 2000 image
Highest point
Elevation435 m (1,427 ft)
Prominence435 m (1,427 ft)
Coordinates17°52′S 148°4′W / 17.867°S 148.067°W / -17.867; -148.067
Geography
LocationSociety Islands
Geology
Stratovolcano
Last eruptionUnknown

Mehetiʻa or Meʻetiʻa is a volcanic island in the Windward Islands, in the east of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is a very young active stratovolcano 110 kilometres (68 mi) east of the Taiarapu Peninsula of Tahiti. It is associated with the Teahitiʻa-Mehetia hotspot, and the South Pacific superswell.

The island has an area of 2.3 square kilometres (0.89 sq mi) and its highest point is 435 metres (1,427 ft). The peak is a well-defined volcanic crater. In 1981 the island was the centre of earthquakes.

History

Tahitian oral tradition holds that navigators stopped at Mehitiʻa, which was regarded as sacred, on their long voyage to New Zealand. This oral history correlates with geological evidence found in southern New Zealand which can be traced back to Mehitiʻa.

The early Polynesian voyagers commonly gave Polynesian ancestral names and symbolism to new places. The high point of Mehetia is Mount Hiurai (Hi’ura’i/Hikurangi) The name Hikurangi in Aotearoa / New Zealand probably came from Mehetia and the name Hi’ura’i probably has its origin in Siʻulagi (Siʻulangi) in Taʻu, Samoa.

The first European sighting was by the Spanish expedition of Pedro Fernández de Quirós on 9 February 1606, that charted it as Decena (ten in Spanish). Later on it was sighted by Samuel Wallis in HMS Dolphin 1767 and Louis Antoine de Bougainville in 1768. It was also sighted by Spanish navigator Domingo de Boenechea on November 6, 1772, on ship Aguila.: 241  He named this island San Cristóbal.

Administration

Mehetiʻa is administratively part of the commune (municipality) of Taiarapu-Est and of its easternmost commune associée Tautira. The island is uninhabited and does not have much vegetation but has a small coral reef on the underwater slopes.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Cheminee, J.L.; Hekinian, R.; Talandier, Jacques; Albarède, Francis; Devey, Colin; Francheteau, J.; Lancelot, Y. (March 1989). "Geology of an active hot spot: Teahitia-Mehetia region in the South Central Pacific". Marine Geophysical Research. 11 (1): 27–50. Bibcode:1989MarGR..11...27C. doi:10.1007/BF00286246. S2CID 129178596.
  2. ↑ Adam, C.; Bonneville, A. (September 2005). "Extent of the South Pacific Superswell". Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 110 (B9) B09408. Bibcode:2005JGRB..110.9408A. doi:10.1029/2004JB003465.
  3. ↑ Binard, N.; Maury, R. C.; Guille, G.; Talandier, J.; Gillot, P.Y.; Cotten, J. (March 1993). "Mehetia Island, South Pacific: geology and petrology of the emerged part of the Society hot spot". Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. 55 (3–4): 239–260. Bibcode:1993JVGR...55..239B. doi:10.1016/0377-0273(93)90040-X.
  4. ↑ Talandier, Jacques (1984). "The volcanoseismic swarms of 1981–1983 in the Tahiti-Mehetia Area, French Polynesia" (PDF). Journal of Geophysical Research. 89 (B13): 11216–11234. Bibcode:1984JGR....8911216T. doi:10.1029/JB089iB13p11216. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  5. ↑ "Scoria blocks reinforces early Polynesian links to Southland". The Southland Times. Stuff. 3 April 2019. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  6. ↑ "Rock find in New Zealand rewrites story of Polynesian voyage". The New Zealand Herald. 2019-04-06. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2020-08-24.
  7. ↑ "Ancestral Naming of Places",
  8. ↑ "Mount Hiurai (Hi’ura’i/Hikurangi)"
  9. ↑ "Mount Hiurai (Hi’ura’i/Hikurangi)"
  10. ↑ "Siʻulagi(Siʻulangi)in Taʻu"
  11. ↑ Corney, Bolton Granvill The quest and occupation of Tahiti by emissaries of Spain during the years 1772-1776, London, 1913, Vol I, p.XXX
  12. 1 2 Salmond, Anne (2010). Aphrodite's Island. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 39, 45, 93. ISBN 9780520261143.