Fatutaka, Fatu Taka or Patu Taka (also known as Fataka and Mitre Island)
is a small
volcanic island
Geologically, a high island or volcanic island is an island of volcanic origin. The term can be used to distinguish such islands from low islands, which are formed from sedimentation or the uplifting of coral reefs (which have often formed ...
in the
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...
province of
Temotu in the south-west
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
.
The easternmost of the Solomon Islands, Fatutaka is located southeast of
Anuta and can be seen from there in clear weather.
Fatutaka and Anuta were discovered for Europeans by Admiral
Edward Edwards in 1791.
The island, located at , is a small rocky outcropping, rising to an elevation of . The total land area of the island is .
Human activities
The island's soil is rocky, and not especially fertile, although it has in the past been used as a
garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...
ing location for the people of Anuta.
The population of Anuta, the closest inhabited island, regularly sail to Fatutaka to eat and collect sea-birds and their eggs.
The birds of Fatukaka have never been surveyed although the presence of
Frigatebird
Frigatebirds are a family of seabirds called Fregatidae which are found across all tropical and subtropical oceans. The five extant species are classified in a single genus, ''Fregata''. All have predominantly black plumage, long, deeply forked ...
,
Eastern Reef Egret
The Pacific reef heron (''Egretta sacra''), also known as the eastern reef heron or eastern reef egret, is a species of heron found throughout southern Asia and Oceania. It occurs in two colour morphs with either slaty grey or pure white pluma ...
,
Pacific Imperial Pigeon
The Pacific imperial pigeon (''Ducula pacifica'') is a widespread species of pigeon in the family Columbidae. It is found in American Samoa, the Cook Islands, the smaller islands of eastern Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, the smaller satellite islands of ...
, and
Emerald Dove
The common emerald dove (''Chalcophaps indica''), also called Asian emerald dove and grey-capped emerald dove, is a widespread resident breeding pigeon native to the tropical and subtropical parts of the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. ...
have been reported.
Geology
Fatutaka is one of numerous volcanic highs, islands and banks, in the north-western North Fiji Basin south of the fossil
Vitiaz Trench
Vityaz may refer to:
* Bogatyr, a folk or epic hero in Slavic culture
Aircraft and spacecraft
*Vityaz, the call sign of spacecraft Soyuz TM-14
* Russky Vityaz, an aircraft built by Igor Sikorsky in 1913
Military
* , a ''Bogatyr'' class screw cor ...
(10°30'–19°S, 169°–174°E). These highs are, however, located up to from the Vitiaz Trench and do not form a continuous chain derived from the trench, but are a series of massifs aligned on north–south trending faults. Anuta and Fatutaka consist of
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...
ic lavas and
andesitic
Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomin ...
breccia
Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix.
The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of ...
s.
In the 1970s the formation of Anuta and Fatutaka 2.2 was attributed to volcanism in the Vitiaz island arc during the initial
back-arc
A back-arc basin is a type of geologic basin, found at some convergent plate boundaries. Presently all back-arc basins are submarine features associated with island arcs and subduction zones, with many found in the western Pacific Ocean. Most o ...
opening of the
North Fiji Basin. The Vitiaz Arc volcanoes were, however, displaced in an earlier episode and the formation of the islands is now attributed to renewed volcanism associated with a change in motion of the
Pacific Plate 2 Ma.
See also
*
Oceania
Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million ...
*
Pacific Islands
*
Santa Cruz Islands
The Santa Cruz Islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, part of Temotu Province of the nation of Solomon Islands discovered by the Spaniards. They lie approximately 250 miles (400 km) to the southeast of the Solomon Islands ...
References
Notes
Sources
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Islands of the Solomon Islands
Volcanoes of the Solomon Islands
{{Solomons-geo-stub