Tegua is an island in
Vanuatu's
Torres Islands chain, located in
Torba Province.
Geography
The island spans 7 km by 6.5 km; on the eastern side of the island is Lateu Bay indented 1.8 km.
Ngwel Island
Ngwel is an uninhabited island in Torba Province of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean. The island is a part of the Torres Islands archipelago.
Geography
Ngwel is located 600 meters off the west coast of Tegua. It is 500 m long and 200 m wide. The est ...
is located 600 meters off the west coast of Tegua Island.
Population
The only village is Lateu, with a population of 58.
[
] About 100 residents of Tegua were evacuated by the government because
rising sea levels were flooding their island.
One geological study found that of four islands in the group, Tegua had the slowest inferred uplift rate at 0.7 mm/yr for southeastern Tegua. A "narrow E-W trending block has been down-dropped relative to the rest of the isle.
Name
The name ''Tegua'' comes from the
Mota language
Mota is an Oceanic language spoken by about 750 people on Mota island, in the Banks Islands of Vanuatu. The language (named after the island) is one of the most conservative Torres–Banks languages, and the only one to keep its inherited five-v ...
, which was used as the primary language of the
Melanesian Mission. Locally, the island is called ''Tugue'' in
Lo-Toga, and ''Töyö'' in
Hiw. These names all come from a
Proto-Torres-Banks form *''Teɣua''.
References
External links
“The Mystery of the Sinking South Pacific Islands”by Gerald Traufetter, ''
Der Spiegel
''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
international'', 15/6/2012.
Islands of Vanuatu
Torba Province
{{Vanuatu-geo-stub