Tofua is a volcanic island in

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

. Located in the Haʻapai island group, it is a steep-sided composite cone with a summit

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

. It is part of the highly active

Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone The Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone is a convergent plate boundary that stretches from the North Island of New Zealand northward. The formation of the Kermadec and Tonga Plates started about 4–5 million years ago. Today, the eastern boundary ...

and its associated

volcanic arc A volcanic arc (also known as a magmatic arc) is a belt of volcanoes formed above a subducting oceanic tectonic plate, with the belt arranged in an arc shape as seen from above. Volcanic arcs typically parallel an oceanic trench, with the arc lo ...

, which extends from

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

north-northeast to

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

, and is formed by the subduction of the

Pacific Plate The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At , it is the largest tectonic plate. The plate first came into existence 190 million years ago, at the triple junction between the Farallon, Phoenix, and Iza ...

under the

Indo-Australian Plate The Indo-Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate that includes the continent of Australia and the surrounding ocean and extends northwest to include the Indian subcontinent and the adjacent waters. It was formed by the fusion of the Indian an ...

. It lies about above a very active

seismic zone In seismology, a seismic zone or seismic belt is an area of seismicity potentially sharing a common cause. It may also be a region on a map for which a common areal rate of seismicity is assumed for the purpose of calculating probabilistic ground ...

.Ewart, A.; Bryan, W.B.; and Gill, J.B. "Mineralogy and Geochemistry of the Younger Volcanic Islands of Tonga, S.W. Pacific." ''Journal of Petrology.'' 14:3 (1973). It is connected to the nearby island of Kao by a submarine ridge. The island is a national park.

Geography and geology

The island is oval, measuring approximately 80 square kilometers. Its sides rise steeply to the rim of the caldera, which is partially filled by a

volcanic crater lake A volcanic crater lake is a lake in a crater that was formed by explosive activity or a collapse during a volcanic eruption. Formation Lakes in calderas fill large craters formed by the collapse of a volcano during an eruption. Lakes in maars ...

with a depth of . The caldera was formed by a major eruption around 1,000 years BP, which left deposits up to thick on islands over away. Tofua's pre-caldera activity is recorded by a sequence of pyroclastic deposits and

lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...

s constituting the older cone, followed on the northern part of the island by froth lavas or welded and unwelded

ignimbrite Ignimbrite is a type of volcanic rock, consisting of hardened tuff. Ignimbrites form from the deposits of pyroclastic flows, which are a hot suspension of particles and gases flowing rapidly from a volcano, driven by being denser than the surro ...

. Following the caldera collapse, lavas were erupted from the northern part of the island and the caldera-rim fissure zone,

scoria Scoria is a pyroclastic, highly vesicular, dark-colored volcanic rock that was ejected from a volcano as a molten blob and cooled in the air to form discrete grains or clasts.Neuendorf, K.K.E., J.P. Mehl, Jr., and J.A. Jackson, eds. (2005) '' ...

and lavas from the caldera-wall fissure zones,

pyroclastics Pyroclastic rocks (derived from the el, πῦρ, links=no, meaning fire; and , meaning broken) are clastic rocks composed of rock fragments produced and ejected by explosive volcanic eruptions. The individual rock fragments are known as pyroc ...

and lavas from intracaldera cones, and recent pyroclastic fall deposits on the outer cone. Eruptive products are mainly basaltic

andesite 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 predomi ...

s and andesites, plus occasional

dacite Dacite () is a volcanic rock formed by rapid solidification of lava that is high in silica and low in alkali metal oxides. It has a fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite. ...

flows within the older cone. A postcaldera cone with

fumarolic A fumarole (or fumerole) is a vent in the surface of the Earth or other rocky planet from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Fumaroles are characteristic of the late stages of volc ...

activity (Lofia) is in the northern part of the caldera Most historical eruptions have been small explosions from Lofia cone along the northern caldera rim. The eruptions of 1958–59 caused most of the islanders to evacuate for a year or more.

History

In 1774

Captain Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

sailed between Tofua and Kao, but did not land. He observed smoke rising from the island, and that " hebrow of the Hill had been consumed by fire". The

Mutiny on the Bounty The mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and set h ...

took place on 28 April 1789, about from Tofua. After being cast off the ship, Captain

William Bligh Vice-Admiral William Bligh (9 September 1754 – 7 December 1817) was an officer of the Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. The mutiny on the HMS ''Bounty'' occurred in 1789 when the ship was under his command; after being set adrift i ...

navigated the overcrowded 23-foot (7 m) open launch on an epic 41-day voyage first to Tofua and then to the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

port of

Kupang Kupang ( id, Kota Kupang, ), formerly known as Koepang, is the capital of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. At the 2020 C ensus, it had a population of 442,758; the official estimate as at mid 2021 was 455,850. It is the largest ci ...

Timor Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is East Timor–Indonesia border, divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western p ...

equipped with a quadrant, a

pocket watch A pocket watch (or pocketwatch) is a watch that is made to be carried in a pocket, as opposed to a wristwatch, which is strapped to the wrist. They were the most common type of watch from their development in the 16th century until wristw ...

, sextant and a compass. The mutineers refused them charts so Bligh had to navigate to Timor from memory. He recorded the distance as . He passed through the difficult

Torres Strait The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost extremity of the Australian mai ...

along the way and reached Kupang on June 14. The only casualty on this voyage was a crewman named John Norton who was stoned to death by the natives of Tofua, the first island they tried to land on. At Tofua (Bligh spelled it ''Tofoa''), Bligh and eighteen loyalists sought refuge in a cave to augment their meager provisions. In the March 1968 issue of the ''

National Geographic Magazine ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

'',

Luis Marden Luis Marden (born Annibale Luigi Paragallo) (January 25, 1913 – March 3, 2003) was an American photographer, explorer, writer, filmmaker, diver, navigator, and linguist who worked for ''National Geographic Magazine''. He worked as a photographer ...

claimed to have found this cave and the grave of John Norton. Both findings were later disproved by

Bengt Danielsson Bengt Emmerik Danielsson (6 July 1921 – 4 July 1997) was a Swedish anthropologist, writer, and a crew member on the ''Kon-Tiki'' raft expedition from South America to French Polynesia in 1947. In 1991, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award f ...

(who had been a member of the 1947 ''

Kon-Tiki The ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition was a 1947 journey by raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands, led by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl. The raft was named ''Kon-Tiki'' after the Inca god Viracocha, fo ...

'' expedition) in the June 1985 issue of the ''

Pacific Islands Monthly ''Pacific Islands Monthly'', commonly referred to as "PIM", was a magazine founded in 1930 in Sydney by New Zealand born journalist R.W. Robson. Background ''Pacific Islands Monthly'' was started in Sydney in 1930. The first issue ran in August ...

''. Danielsson identified Bligh's cave as lying on the sheltered northwest coast, where Bligh identified it; Marden's cave lies on the exposed southeast coast. Additionally, Danielsson thought it highly unlikely that the Tofuans would have allotted any grave site to Norton, or that the grave, if allotted, would have been preserved for two centuries. In May 1943, a lifeboat containing 23 survivors from the

Liberty ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Ma ...

SS ''Phoebe A. Hearst'', which sank after being torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I19 on 30 April 1943, landed. The crew survived on shellfish and coconuts until spotted by a

Lockheed Hudson The Lockheed Hudson is a light bomber and coastal reconnaissance aircraft built by the American Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. It was initially put into service by the Royal Air Force shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War and p ...

patrol aircraft of the Royal New Zealand Air Force and were picked up the following day by the

YMS-1 class minesweeper The ''YMS-1'' class of auxiliary motor minesweepers was established with the laying down of ''YMS-1'' on 4 March 1941. Some were later transferred to the United Kingdom as part of the World War II Lend-Lease pact between the two nations. One sh ...

YMS-89 of the US Navy and taken to

Tongatapu Tongatapu is the main island of Tonga and the site of its capital, Nukualofa. It is located in Tonga's southern island group, to which it gives its name, and is the country's most populous island, with 74,611 residents (2016), 70.5% of the nation ...

. In 2008–2009, the Swiss adventurer Xavier Rosset spent 10 months alone on the island. Having a camera, he turned his survivalist endeavor into a documentary called ''300 Days Alone''.

The oral tradition of Kao and Tofua

E. W. Gifford, recording Tongan myths and tales in the 1920s, documented this explanation for Tofua's caldera and the creation of Kao Island to the north:

Three deities from Samoa, Tuvuvata, Sisi, and Faingaa, conspired to steal Tofua. So they came and tore up the high mountain by its very roots and its place was taken by a large lake. This enraged the Tongan gods very much and one of them, Tafakula, essayed to stop the thieves. He stood on the island of Luahako and bent over so as to show his anus. It shone so brilliantly that the Samoan deities were struck with fear, thinking that the sun was rising and that their dastardly works was about to be revealed. Hence, they dropped the mountain and fled to Samoa. The mountain became the island of Kao.Edward Winslow Gifford (1924), ''Tongan myths and tales'', Honolulu: Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin, No. 8

Ecology

The island is the largest area of undisturbed Tongan tropical moist forests in Tonga, and was designated a national park in 2001. It has been designated an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International. Birds include the

Many-colored fruit dove The many-colored fruit dove (''Ptilinopus perousii''), also known as ''manuma'' in the Samoan language, is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It occurs on islands in the south-west Pacific Ocean where it is found in Fiji, the Samoan Isla ...

Crimson-crowned fruit dove The crimson-crowned fruit dove (''Ptilinopus porphyraceus'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is found in American Samoa, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Niue, Samoa, Tonga, and Wallis and Futuna Islands. Its natural habitats are subt ...

Blue-crowned lorikeet The blue-crowned lorikeet (''Vini australis''), also known as the blue-crowned lory, blue-crested lory, Solomon lory or Samoan lory, is a parrot found throughout the Lau Islands (Fiji), Tonga, Samoa, Niue and adjacent islands, including: ʻAlofi ...

Polynesian wattled honeyeater The Polynesian wattled honeyeater (''Foulehaio carunculatus'') or the eastern wattled honeyeater, is a species of bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. It was considered conspecific with the Fiji wattled honeyeater and the kikau. The sp ...

Polynesian triller The Polynesian triller (''Lalage maculosa'') is a passerine bird belonging to the triller genus ''Lalage'' in the cuckoo-shrike family Campephagidae. It has numerous subspecies distributed across the islands of the south-west Pacific. It is 15 t ...

Fiji shrikebill The Fiji shrikebill (''Clytorhynchus vitiensis'') is a songbird species in the family Monarchidae. It is found in American Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. Taxonomy and systematics T ...

, and

Polynesian starling The Polynesian starling (''Aplonis tabuensis'') is a species of starling of the family Sturnidae. It is found in the Samoan Islands, Fiji, Niue, Tonga, the Santa Cruz Islands and Wallis and Futuna. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropica ...

References

External links