Nunn et al.—Vanished islands in Vanuatu
Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand
Volume 36, Number 1, March, 2006, pp 37–50
37
Vanished islands in Vanuatu: new research and a preliminary
geohazard assessment
Patrick D. Nunn1, Mary Baniala2, Morris Harrison3, and Paul Geraghty4
Abstract Oral traditions recalling the disappearances of islands in the volcanically and
seismically active central part of the Vanuatu archipelago were collected from informants
on Ambae, Maewo, Malakula, and Pentecost Islands. Analyses of the details of these
traditions and the meanings of the names of the vanished islands suggest that they once
existed. Vanished islands off north-west Malakula, named Tolamp and Malveveng, are
likely to have subsided abruptly down the slope to the interarc rift marked by the South
Aoba Basin. The unnamed vanished island off the western tip of Ambae is likely to have
subsided during a volcanic or seismic event. The vanished island named (Vanua) Mamata
between Ambae, Maewo, and Pentecost is also likely to have slipped down the flank of
the slope to the South Aoba Basin. Island disappearances of this kind are memorable
expressions of the geohazards that affect areas like central Vanuatu. The novel approach
adopted here is argued to be an important adjunct to more conventional approaches to
geohazard assessment in such places.
Keywords
Island; Pacific; Vanuatu; oral tradition; geohazard
INTRODUCTION
Compared to most parts of the Pacific Rim, the nature and degree of threats from geohazards
to human interests in the Pacific Ocean are not well known. Of particular concern along the
Pacific Rim are collapses of volcanic edifices, which can cause tsunami(s). Recent research
modelling the effects of island collapse in the Atlantic Ocean shows that it could have, as it has
in the past (Carracedo et al. 1999; Day et al. 1999), catastrophic impacts on both insular and
continental coasts in the Atlantic (Ward & Day 2001). This work underscores the imperative
of discovering whether comparable threats exist in the Pacific.
The Pacific has more active volcanoes than the Atlantic, and a record of large magnitude
eruptions, including the AD 1452 Kuwae eruption in Vanuatu (Eissen et al. 1994), the effects
of which were felt on the other side of the world and influenced Northern Hemisphere weather
with drastic consequences for several years (Pang 1993). Large magnitude earthquakes are
common along convergent plate boundaries in the Pacific and can trigger long range tsunami.
Submarine landslides on the steep sided flanks of oceanic islands or along ocean trenches can
Department of Geography, The University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji. [email protected]
The University of the South Pacific—Emalus Campus, Port Vila, Vanuatu.
3
Department of Geology, Mines and Water Resources, Private Bag 001, Port Vila, Vanuatu.
4
Department of Literature and Language, The University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji.
R05004 Received 5 December 2005; accepted 1 March 2006; Online publication date 17 March 2006
1
2
38
Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 36, 2006
also generate large waves. It has been suggested that the 105 ka submarine collapse off Lana’i
Island in Hawaii caused a wave up to 375 m high to wash backwards onto the islands Lana’i
and Moloka’i (Moore & Moore 1984; Moore et al. 1994) and also produced a long range
tsunami that eroded shore platforms as much as 15 m high on the New South Wales coast of
Australia, some 7000 km distant (Young & Bryant 1992).
While much research has focused on the prediction and effects of volcanic and seismic
hazards in the Pacific, comparatively little is known about the recurrence times and impacts
of large scale, island-flank collapse, which may not be explicitly related to volcanic or seismic events (Keating & McGuire 2000). In an effort to improve understanding of geohazards
from island-flank collapse in the Pacific, research has been carried out recently looking at oral
traditions that are considered to recall such events (Nunn 2001; Nunn & Pastorizo in press).
Oral traditions are particularly strong amongst Pacific Islander communities and can help to
determine the recurrence times of major geohazards, their locations, and their principal effects
(Holcomb & Searle 1991; Nunn 2001). In addition, careful linguistic analysis of placenames
has been shown to be a potentially valuable source of information on such events (Geraghty
2001).
This paper reports a first attempt to use oral traditions to understand the nature of island-flank
collapse in north-central Vanuatu by analysing traditions recalling the disappearance of islands,
and their names. The utility of Ni-Vanuatu oral traditions in this regard was demonstrated by
the way in which they were used both to draw scientists’ attention to the catastrophic Kuwae
eruption (Garanger 1972; Espirat 1973) and thereafter to help them reconstruct its detailed
effects (Eissen et al. 1994; Monzier et al. 1994; Clark 1996).
The islands of Vanuatu have been occupied by humans for around 3000 years (Bedford
2003) and have a well documented body of oral tradition (Bonnemaison 1996). Since about
2700 years ago, a few hundred years after the first human settlement of Vanuatu, and especially
within the last millennium, there appears to have been decreasing contact between human
groups both within the Vanuatu archipelago and between Vanuatu and nearby island groups
(Luders 1996; Spriggs 2003). Within the last millennium, linguistic variations became more
marked (Tryon 1996), pottery manufacture ceased (Spriggs 1997) and, as elsewhere in the
tropical Pacific Islands during the period (Nunn & Britton 2001; Nunn 2003a), conflict and
interior (rather than coastal) settlement probably became common (Galipaud 2002).
STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS
This study focuses on part of central Vanuatu, specifically the islands Ambae (Aoba), Maewo,
Malakula, and Pentecost (Fig. 1), from which reports of vanished islands in oral traditions
were already known. A preliminary survey of these traditions by one of the authors (PDN)
was carried out in 2002, results suggesting that islands had reputedly disappeared (a) off parts
of Malakula, (b) off western Ambae, and (c) somewhere between southern Maewo, northern
Pentecost, and eastern Ambae.
For the present study, field survey and collection of relevant oral traditions was carried out
by the authors from December 2003 to February 2004. Vanuatu is well known as the most
linguistically fragmented nation on earth (Lynch & Crowley 2001), and many different (though
related) languages are spoken. For this study, oral traditions were collected both through the
medium of Bislama, the common language of Vanuatu, and local vernacular languages where
appropriate.
Interviews were conducted within the context of unstructured and non-formal discussions
after generally lengthy preliminaries appropriate to particular situations. No direct questions
were asked about “vanished islands”; the subject generally being introduced following discussions about the ancestry of the particular tribal groups represented at these discussions.
Nunn et al.—Vanished islands in Vanuatu
39
168 E
North Aoba Basin
30
0
Espiritu Santo
Maewo
0
2000
East
Santo
Basin
e
ba
Am
Pentecost
Malo
South Aoba
Basin
Vao
Atchin
16 S
200
0
Malakula
Basin
1000
Ambrym
Malakula
25
0
km
Epi
Fig. 1 Geography and bathymetry (isobaths in metres) of central Vanuatu. Bathymetric detail and
interpretation largely from sources in Greene & Wong (1988). Note that the Aoba Basin is named after
the island Aoba, called Ambae in this paper, and that initially it was named the Central Basin. The three
areas where vanished islands were investigated are off north-east Malakula (between Vao and Atchin),
off the western extremity of Ambae, and in the area between eastern Ambae, southern Maewo, and
northern Pentecost.
No interview sheets were displayed, these being filled in elsewhere only after the interviews
ended. Interview sheets involved questions about the location and nature of any formerly
emergent islands, when and how they disappeared, where the descendants of the island’s
former inhabitants live now, and a number of ancillary topics.
The vanished island motif was targeted because it is common in Pacific Island myths (Nunn
2001) and is believed in many instances to recall the flank-collapse of an island edifice that
resulted in the removal of its top, comprising the island itself (Nunn & Pastorizo in press).
Having originated and being currently situated along the convergent plate boundary between
the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate, the Vanuatu island arc is well known to be
active volcanically and tectonically (Wong & Greene 1988), both possible triggers for islandflank collapse. For this reason, it is considered that vanished island myths here are likely to
be autochthonous rather than having developed elsewhere and reached Vanuatu with human
migrants, an issue discussed for Pacific Island origin myths by Nunn (2003b).
Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 36, 2006
40
N
fa u
fa
ul
Vao
lt
t
South
Aoba
Basin
Tolamp
Malveveng
Atchin
Malakula
Island
sunken
islands?
A
M-AD
Malakula Basin
(unstable marine
slope deposits)
5 km
m
0
SW
NE
Malakula Island
Malakula Basin
A
1000
2000
5 km
South
Aoba
Basin
Fig. 2 Form and structure of the north-east coast of Malakula Island and areas offshore showing the
locations of the two vanished islands Tolamp and Malveveng, and other possible sunken islands. Bathymetry and structure from Greene et al. (1988). The location of Site M-AD where a late Quaternary uplift
rate of 0.6 mm a–1 was obtained by Jouannic et al. (1980) is also marked. Note that the cross-section is
reduced from a SW–NE diagonal across the map.
VANISHED ISLANDS AROUND MALAKULA ISLAND
Malakula (Malekula) is part of the Western Belt of islands in Vanuatu. The island’s east coast
is bordered by the Malakula Basin, which slopes steeply down to the inter-arc graben marked
by the South Aoba Basin in this area (Fig. 2). Malakula is tilting towards the north-east, with
uplift rates as high as 4.3 mm a–1 on the island’s west coast contrasting with maximum rates
of 0.6 mm a–1 on the north-east coast (Jouannic et al. 1980). In this regard, it may be significant that the only reports of vanished islands collected from people on Malakula and nearby
islands for this study refer to the island’s north-east coast, although there is another possible
tradition in the Southwest Bay area (Terry Crowley pers. comm. 2003).
Results
In all, a total of 18 informants who knew about vanished islands off north-east Malakula were
interviewed. As elsewhere in Vanuatu, the traditions of islands having disappeared were not
commonly known among the people of this area. Interview sheets were used to direct interviews
and record results but these sheets were not displayed openly during discussions. Discussion
was allowed to flow freely, and often there was considerable time spent on subjects peripheral
to that of specific interest.
Nunn et al.—Vanished islands in Vanuatu
41
Off the north-east coast of Malakula lie a number of smaller inhabited islands (Fig. 2),
including Atchin and Vao where traditions about “lost islands” named Malveveng and Tolamp
are commonest. There is no mystery about the locations of these islands for coral reefs (having the same names) exist there now and are visited for fishing. The surface of Tolamp lies c.
15 m below the ocean surface, that of Malveveng only c. 4–5 m. It is apparently possible to
stand on the surface of Malveveng today when the tide is very low. When diving at both sites
at times when the sea is clear, it is apparently possible to see ancient nasara (meeting places),
roads, boundaries marked by stone fences, tamtam (gongs), and stones for namanggi (custom
ceremonies)1.
The islands apparently disappeared at the same time, long ago. One informant recalls his
grandfather telling him of a custom ceremony around AD 1817 which was held by descendants of the Tolamp people on the Malakula mainland. The people of Tolamp who survived
the island’s disappearance settled on the adjacent (Vao) part of the mainland; originally they
spoke a distinct language but now they speak the Vao language. The survivors from Malveveng
settled first on the (Sowol) mainland, then moved to Atchin Island because they spoke the
language of its inhabitants.
Interpretation
Both Malveveng and Tolamp were apparently low islands and their disappearance is linked in
some oral traditions collected during this study to the effect of a large wave. In this scenario,
the islands are most likely to have been sand cays (motu as defined by Nunn 1994) that were
washed off their reef foundations together with some of the reef itself by a large wave, perhaps
generated locally by a large magnitude earthquake, similar to one 7 m high that ran onto the
Malakula coast on 12 August 1965 (Benoit & Dubois 1971).
Similar situations involving entire islands being washed away by unusually large waves have
been reported from elsewhere in the tropical oceans (e.g., Howorth 2000). If this is true, then
details about what can sometimes be seen on the surface of the sunken islands are likely to be
misinterpreted and perhaps stated only to aid remembrance of their disappearance. In favour
of this explanation is the comparatively common incidence of such islands being removed in
their entirety by large waves. Against it is the observation that all the islands off north-east
Malakula that still exist are bedrock islands (not made solely from unconsolidated sediment)
rising more than 20 m above sea level (Fig. 2).
An alternative explanation for the disappearance of Malveveng and Tolamp is that they
represent part of the flank of Malakula that moved downslope, perhaps in a large landslide as
a consequence of the island’s north-eastward tilting (Jouannic et al. 1980) and/or as a result
of fault movement along the steep western side of the adjoining South Aoba Basin (Carney
& Macfarlane 1980). In support of this explanation, there are a number of island-like features
on the western flanks of the Malakula Basin (Fig. 2). In addition, the presence of buried coral
reefs off north-east Malakula is well documented (Katz 1988) and possibly indicates that abrupt
subsidence events have periodically occurred here during the past few million years, perhaps
since the late Miocene. For these reasons, the explanation favoured here is that Malveveng and
Tolamp disappeared as a result of a failure along the flank of north-east Malakula Island. This
event may have generated a large wave, similar in both cause and effect to the 1998 Aitape
Tsunami along the New Guinea coast (Tappin et al. 1999; Davies 2002), and is likely to have
registered in the memories of the descendants of the peoples affected.
The italicised words are Bislama words.
1
Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 36, 2006
42
A.
B.
168 E
Tilamlabe (HV)
Ambae
168 E
Lingland (EB)
Maewo
Ure Tavindir (JT)
Ambae
unknown (OL)
Maewo
Ure Mamata (GB)
Balehai (HF)
Balehai (JT)
Nara (JMS)
0
10
km
C.
Pentecost
0
D.
168 E
Vanua Mamata (OD)
Ambae
10
km
Maewo
Vanua
Mamata
(GB)
Pentecost
168 E
Lolowai
Baitora
Vilakalaka
Nduindui
Maewo
Ambae
Vanua
Mamata (MG)
Vanua Mamata (LR)
0
Pentecost
10
km
Ngwala
0
10
km
Pentecost
Fig. 3 The area between the islands Ambae, Maewo, and Pentecost where numerous reports of one
or more vanished islands were obtained. A, The locations and shapes of all islands as described and/
or rendered by informants on Ambae; B, information from Maewo; C, information from Pentecost.
Informants are listed in Table 1. D, Locations and shapes of all islands as described and/or rendered by
all informants in this area.
VANISHED ISLANDS OFF WESTERN AMBAE
Ambae is part of the volcanically-active Central Chain of Vanuatu and slopes steeply on every
side down to the floor of the surrounding inter-arc Aoba Basin at depths of 2000–3000 m
(Macfarlane et al. 1988). According to oral traditions interpreted by Bonnemaison (1996), an
island that once existed off the west coast of Ambae disappeared some 3 centuries ago, at the
same time as several villages on the west coast of Ambae were destroyed. This catastrophic
event is linked by Bonnemaison (1996) to submarine landslides associated with a large eruption of one of the volcanoes on Ambae, possibly that which “annihilated” the population of
the Nduindui area about 300 years ago (Macfarlane et al. 1988, p. 73; Fig. 3D).
Results
Only three people who knew of a vanished island off western Ambae could be located, all
living in the Vilakalaka area of the island (Fig. 3D). They could not locate the vanished island
but recalled that the surviving people came to the Vilakalaka area where the men were killed
and the women were married. The people of this island had looked like Tongans and spoke a
different language to the people of Ambae.
Interpretation
This island may have been a sand cay (or motu) that was washed off its reef foundation by a
large wave. Yet, although details are sparse, there are indications that it was a larger, higher
island than a sand cay would form.
Nunn et al.—Vanished islands in Vanuatu
43
Fig. 4 Geology and structure of the area around Ambae, southern Maewo and northern Pentecost (after
Greene et al. 1988). Note the relationship of two faults with a submarine volcanic edifice (underwater
volcano?), which may be Mamata even though its summit lies around 1000 m below sea level. Also
shown are two possible downfaulted blocks (Greene et al. 1988), the deeper (A) being part of the late
Miocene basement of the Maewo-Pentecost ridge (Eastern Belt), the other (B) being covered with basinal
and shelf deposits, in contrast to unstable marine slopes around it.
Firstly, the submarine slopes around the island Ambae are steep, especially those that drop
to the North and South Aoba Basins, and submarine slumps are many (Wong & Greene 1988).
Two slumps, one more than 16 km2 in extent, are shown in Fig. 4.
Secondly, this island may have been one of the phreatic craters associated with caldera
subsidence on Ambae, which include that at Lolowai and the island Ngwala (Devil Rock) a
few hundred metres off the western tip of Ambae (Macfarlane et al. 1988; Fig. 3D).
Thirdly, the Aoba Fracture Zone, one of three that cut across the trend of the inter-arc basin,
is assumed to be the source of the magma from which Ambae was built (Wong & Greene
1988) and, as such, even off the western end of the island proper, it may be a focus for (submarine) volcanism and rupture that could have triggered flank failure and island disappearance
nearby.
Finally, it seems plausible to suppose that the disappearance of this island could have been
triggered by an eruption or an earthquake, both of which are frequent events on Ambae Island
(Wong & Greene 1988). The most recent eruption occurred about 100 years ago and was from
a fumarolic vent that breached the wall of the caldera lake causing a mudslide that destroyed
villages on the lower (south-east) slopes of Ambae (Macfarlane et al. 1988).
44
Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 36, 2006
VANISHED ISLANDS BETWEEN EASTERN AMBAE, SOUTHERN MAEWO,
AND NORTHERN PENTECOST
The submarine slopes around the whole of Ambae, except its north-west corner, are steep. The
triangular-shaped area enclosed by eastern Ambae, southern Maewo, and northern Pentecost
is a bathymetric embayment (like a valley head) in which extremely steep slopes occur.
The disappearance of an island in this area was noted in the Remark Book of USS Narragansett, kept by Commander Meade between 1872 and 1873 who reported that “the survivors
[of the sinking island] saved themselves with great difficulty” (Stommel 1984, p. 60). Oral
historical research (reported by Nunn 2001) found that the island was called “Lingland” and
had disappeared bifo bifo yet (long long ago), and that the survivors had sailed to Baitora
(Baetora) on Maewo Island at a time when there was just one village; now there are 20.
Results
Extant oral traditions concerning this island proved fewer than expected. In eastern Ambae,
only three out of the 20 elderly people questioned had heard of the island; in northern Pentecost, four from 15 people questioned knew of the island; and in southern Maewo, only three
out of 23 people questioned responded positively when asked if they knew of the island. In
Baitora Village, no one was found who knew about the island.
A variety of names were given to the island, the most common (given exclusively by informants on Pentecost) being (Vanua) Mamata. Figure 3 (A–C) shows the names and the locations
of Mamata given by informants on the three different islands. Figure 3D shows all locations
for Mamata given by informants. There seems to be a distinction between those who state it
was round and those who state it was elongate. It is possible that the oral traditions refer to
more than one island, perhaps a larger one in the north (at the head of the embayment) and
a smaller, more rounded one in the south. It is worth noting that this is consistent with the
bathymetry, a larger, more elongate northern island perhaps being part of the ridge connecting
north-east Ambae to Maewo (Fig. 1) and the more rounded southern island being a single,
steep sided volcanic edifice.
The name (Vanua) Mamata, given by informants from Pentecost, may be significant. Vanua
is the widespread Vanuatu word for “land”, while mamata may be a reflex of Proto Eastern
Oceanic (PEO) *maza meaning “dry, shallow, low tide”. Most intriguingly, if it is indeed a
reflex of *maza, it is unlikely to be from a Vanuatu language, since Vanuatu languages in this
area reflect PEO *z as /s/ or /h/, never /t/ (Tryon 1976, pp. 19–21). A possible explanation is
that mamata is the local pronunciation of what was originally a Polynesian name, mamasa (or
possibly fanua mamasa). The realisation of Polynesian /s/ as /t/ can be accounted for by the
fact that in Raga, the language of the part of Pentecost closest to Mamata, /sa/ is an unusual
sequence of phonemes and appears to have been impermissible in the past, so would probably
have been realised as /ta/, which is permissible. Strengthening this suggestion is the fact that,
in at least Tongan, there is a partially reduplicated form of *maza (mamaha) which is a noun
with the specific meaning “shallow place”, a form which to our knowledge does not occur in
any Vanuatu language in the vicinity.
There is little agreement as to the character of the vanished island(s) or the cause(s) of
its/their disappearance, undoubtedly reflective of the length of time since the event, but also
instructive as to the value of apparently precise detail in such oral traditions (Table 1). In summary, 67% of informants recall the island as high, the rest as low; 63% of the eight informants
who claimed to know stated that the island disappeared as a result of earthquakes while 38%
said it was because of (large) waves. One informant (Mark Gaviga) stated that earthquakes
generated large waves that led to the island’s disappearance.
Nunn et al.—Vanished islands in Vanuatu
45
Many informants alleged that the people of the vanished island were warlike, that they lived
improperly, or that they broke traditional taboos. Some informants claimed that the destruction of the island was appropriate retribution for this. Most informants stated that the people
of the vanished island were “Polynesian” and that they spoke a language distinct from those
of the contemporary inhabitants of Ambae, Maewo, and Pentecost. While recognising that
many of the survivors from the island’s destruction subsequently settled these islands, 50%
of informants also mentioned how some survivors also went to Wallis. One informant said
they also settled Futuna, possibly that linked politically to Wallis, possibly that in southern
Vanuatu.
Even though some informants claim the location of Mamata is marked today by a surface
reef, none is shown on any available map. Other informants stated that the island’s former
location is marked by a place where ocean currents are highly variable. It is possible that this
occurs in response to the presence of a shoal, although none is shown on the available bathymetric maps.
Table 1
Oral traditions concerning the cause(s) of the disappearance of (Vanua) Mamata.
Informant (island)
(a) Ambae Island
Oscar Leo (Ambae)
Johnstill Tari (Ambae)
Hadson Vugi (Ambae)
(b) Maewo Island
Gideon Bani (Maewo)
Erick Boe (Maewo)
Harold Finger (Maewo)
John Mark Sine (Maewo)
Chief Jonah Toakanase
(Maewo)
(c) Pentecost Island
George Boemaruru
(Pentecost)
Explanation
Island was a high island which disappeared because of big waves; no
earthquake or volcanic eruption was involved.
The island was a low one, the disappearance of which was not linked to
large waves, or to volcanic eruption, but rather to earthquakes centred in
the middle of the island.
The island was high and disappeared because of earthquakes; no volcanic
eruption or big waves.
Island was a high island, which disappeared during earthquakes centred
between Maewo, Ambae, and Pentecost which generated big waves.
The island was a large high one which disappeared rapidly.
It was a low sandy island which disappeared because of erosion by large
waves.
The island was a large high one, the disappearance of which was not
linked to large waves, or to volcanic eruption, or to earthquake.
Island had been a low island, which disappeared because it was washed
away by big waves; no earthquake or volcanic eruption was involved.
The island was high and disappeared because of earthquakes; no volcanic
eruption or big waves. Someone triggered the earthquakes by touching a
stone which shook the island before it disappeared.
Olivea Daruhi (Pentecost) This was a large high island with mountains, which disappeared through
magic, not by big waves, earthquakes, or volcanic eruption.
Mark Gaviga (Pentecost) Island was low and disappeared during earthquakes centred between
Pentecost and Maewo which generated big waves.
Lengas Rara (Pentecost)
The island was a small high one, the disappearance of which was not
linked to large waves, or to volcanic eruption, but rather to earthquakes
centred in the middle of the island.
46
Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 36, 2006
Interpretation
Given that there are so many reports, it seems likely that Mamata once existed in this area,
and that its importance in oral tradition is because it was a sizeable island supporting a significant population. The bathymetric embayment in the area where Mamata reputedly existed
appears to be controlled by active faults associated with the continuing development of the
inter-arc basin.
In terms of dating the disappearance of Mamata, the record of Commander Meade is invaluable. Even though he does not state how long ago the island disappeared, it could be assumed
that it was sufficiently fresh in the minds of the people in the area, which is why they were
quick to relate it. If this is correct, then the disappearance of Mamata could have been part
of the event around AD 1870 (c. 100 years ago according to Warden 1970), which involved
a fumarole eruption that breached the caldera wall on Ambae, causing a mudflow from Lake
Manoro that destroyed a village in the south-east of the island. Although the available evidence
for this event does not involve island-flank collapse, it is quite plausible to suppose that a
summit eruption of Ambae may have been accompanied by localised collapse of the island’s
submarine slopes.
Bathymetric and geological mapping of the area in which Mamata once existed reveals
three possibilities as to its origin and precise location (Fig. 4).
The first possibility is that Mamata was the submarine volcanic remnant that now exists
about halfway between Ambae and Pentecost. This volcanic remnant is shown by Greene et
al. (1988) as straddling the Eastern South Aoba Basin Fault and as being composed of the
same submarine volcanic rocks as most of the Ambae Volcano. It is possible that this volcanic
remnant represents a flank volcanic edifice of the Ambae Volcano that once existed above the
ocean surface and has since sunk or collapsed to form an underwater edifice 1000 m below
sea level.
A second option is the deeper of the two blocks (Fig. 4A) that is composed of the same
Eastern Belt volcanic basement as surrounds the islands Maewo and Pentecost. A likely explanation of its presence in this location is that it slumped down the steep sides of this bathymetric
embayment. Its depth (around 1500 m) makes it less likely to be (the site of) Mamata.
The third possibility is the shallower block (Fig. 4B) that comprises (sub-) horizontally
shelf-basin marine deposits covering a flat surface, in contrast to the surrounding steep slopes
that are covered by unstable marine slope deposits. A guyot with a surface c. 1000 m below
sea level (Chase & Seekins 1988) was mapped on Fig. 4B and may be Mamata.
It is of interest to note that both oral traditions and geo-bathymetric mapping identify a
smaller, more rounded feature, and a larger, more elongate feature. It is certainly possible
that there is no agreement between the two lines of enquiry but, if there is, then this might
suggest that the oral traditions recall at least two island disappearances in this area. The steep
slopes, the active volcanism, and the presence of two active faults would strengthen any such
suggestion, although it is also possible that some recollections are of floating pumice islands
produced by underwater eruptions rather than of bedrock islands.
DISCUSSION
It is plausible to suppose that the oral traditions synthesised above all recall the actual disappearance of islands in this part of central Vanuatu. All four (five if it is assumed that the Mamata
stories recall two island disappearances) islands seem to have disappeared at least 100 years
ago, which helps explain why some of the details are contradictory. In each case, there are
plausible natural explanations (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, large waves, slumping, islandflank collapse) which can, singly or together, account for island disappearance. Given that the
ingredients for these explanations (steep submarine slopes, active tectonics, active volcanism,
Nunn et al.—Vanished islands in Vanuatu
47
tsunami generation) are all present in north-central Vanuatu, and indeed are concentrated there
compared to surrounding areas (Nunn & Pastorizo in press), there seems little reason to suppose that the oral traditions collected for this study are not autochthonous.
Calculations of recurrence time of the particular geohazards represented by the disappearance of these islands can be made, even though data quality is very poor. Assuming that the
three (four?) groups of islands disappeared on separate occasions (Malveveng & Tolamp
being considered as the same event), and that these were the only events to have occurred
in this region within the last 500 years, then it is calculated that one such island is likely to
disappear in an area of some 17 500 km2 in this part of Vanuatu every c. 125–170 years. If it
is assumed that (the last) Mamata disappeared around AD 1870 (see Discussion above) then
another island disappearance may occur soon.
Some of the additional information in the above accounts of these islands’ disappearance
can also be interpreted meaningfully in terms of the history of Vanuatu.
At a late stage in the history of this part of Vanuatu, there appears to have been an influx of
people from elsewhere, perhaps people with “Polynesian” cultural traits and appearance who
spoke languages distinct from those of the people already occupying the area (Clark 1994;
Spriggs 1997). Further, it is possible that the newcomers, because of conflict with the people
already there, perhaps to avoid malaria, or perhaps because seafood played a more important
part in their lifestyles, chose to occupy smaller, hitherto uninhabited islands off the main
islands. These islands are innately more vulnerable to destruction, particularly in a dynamic
geological setting like Vanuatu, as the long-term occupants of the archipelago undoubtedly
knew, which may be why they were not living there. The newcomers occupied these islands,
but some were subsequently destroyed and their inhabitants sought refuge on larger islands,
where many eventually became subsumed into the existing population.
This model has some support from other studies. It is well known that some groups of early
settlers from Samoa and Tonga subsequently back-migrated westwards and colonised the
unoccupied islands they found (the so-called “Polynesian outliers”) (Kirch 1984) including
those in Vanuatu (Clark 1994; Spriggs 1997). The name of at least one of the vanished islands
(Vanua) Mamata, indicates that it may have been named by Polynesians. Moreover, if these
people had lifestyles that, like the earliest occupants of the archipelagoes of Fiji, Samoa, and
Tonga to the east (Kirch 1997), focused on marine foods, then they may also have favoured
smaller offshore islands with generally more extensive, healthier fringing reefs for settlement.
It has also been suggested that one of the human responses to the “AD 1300 Event” (Nunn
2000) was that people driven away from coastal settlements on one island sought hitherto
uninhabited islands to settle where they would be safer from conflict. There appear to be
examples of this from the middle of the last millennium in the southern Cook Islands (Walter
1996) and New Caledonia (Sand 1995). Recent work studying the attitudes of Ni-Vanuatu to
geological catastrophes and their precursors stresses the deep understanding that has built up
over generations (Galipaud 2002). In the light of this, it is quite plausible to suppose that the
locations most vulnerable to such catastrophes (such as offshore islands) were deliberately
unoccupied and therefore open to settlement by less well informed newcomers.
CONCLUSIONS
The paucity of reliable information concerning geohazards in tectonically active parts of the
Pacific like central Vanuatu should be of broad and immediate concern. In particular, there is
an imperative to understand the triggers and recurrence times of large magnitude yet infrequent
hazards, such as those associated with island-flank collapse.
Given that more conventional geological enquiry in regions like central Vanuatu is often
problematic, largely because of the dynamism of earth surface processes in the area, one source
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of information that has proved valuable is oral tradition. Yet, as in many traditional societies,
oral traditions are becoming less well known and often more garbled than they were a few
decades ago, and consequently their potential for illuminating geohazards is disappearing.
Another area of research that may help illuminate geological history is linguistically informed
placename analysis.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For their critical reading of the first draft of this paper we are grateful to John Lynch, James Terry,
Geoff Boon, Hollingsworth Ala Ngwele, and Dalsie Bani of the University of the South Pacific, Ralph
Regenvanu of the Vanuatu National Museum, Terry Crowley of the University of Waikato, H. Gary Greene
of California State University, and Matthew Spriggs of the Australian National University. We also thank
the following informants in Vanuatu: on Ambae Island, Edward Banga, Oscar Leo, Willie Levu, Daniel
Moli, Peter Tagaro, Johnstill Tari, Hadson Vugi; on Atchin Island, Hosea Andrew, Meltetamat John,
Martino Metsal, Tony Rowsy, Boneface Taly, Marcela Tavunwo, Ruruvanu Terry; on Malakula Island,
Tite Malvanu, Claude Telukluk, Early Telukluk, Iferem Telukluk; on Pentecost Island, George Boemaruru,
Olivea Daruhi, Mark Gaviga, Lengas Rara; on Maewo Island, Gideon Bani, Erick Boe, Harold Finger,
John Mark Sine, Chief Jonah Toakanase; and in Port Vila, George Goose, Jean Marie Metsan, Cyriaque
Metsan, Edmond Rory, Georgy Bernard Rowsy, Paul Telukluk and Reubennie Ulnaim. This study was
funded by the University of the South Pacific through research grants 6571 and 6597 to PDN.
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