Mocha Island
{{Short description|Island in Chile}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2012}}
{{Infobox islands
| name = Mocha Island
| image_name = Isla Mocha 1.jpg
| image_caption = Aerial view of Mocha Island
| image_size = 280px
| locator_map =
| native_name = Isla Mocha
| pushpin_map = Chile
| pushpin_relief = 1
| native_name_link =
| nickname =
| location = South-central Chile
| coordinates = {{coord|38|21|54|S|73|54|54|W|type:isle_region:CL|display=it}}
| archipelago =
| total_islands =
| major_islands =
| area_km2 = 48
| length_km =
| width_km =
| highest_mount =
| elevation_m = 300
| country = Chile
| country_admin_divisions_title = Region
| country_admin_divisions = Bío Bío
| country_admin_divisions_title_1 = Province
| country_admin_divisions_1 = Arauco
| country_admin_divisions_title_2 = Comuna
| country_admin_divisions_2 = Lebu
| country_largest_city =
| country_largest_city_population =
| population = ~800
| population_as_of =
| density_km2 =
| ethnic_groups = Chileans, Mapuches
| additional_info =
}}
Mocha Island ({{langx|es|link=no|Isla Mocha}} {{IPA|es|ˈisla ˈmotʃa|}}) is a Chilean island located west of the coast of Arauco Province in the Pacific Ocean. The island is the location of numerous historic shipwrecks. In Mapuche mythology, the souls of dead people travel west to visit this island. The waters off the island are a popular place for recreational sea fishing.
History
Image:Van spilberger in mocha 1616.jpg.]]
The island was historically inhabited by an indigenous coastal population of Mapuches known as the Lafkenches. The first European to document Mocha was Juan Bautista Pastene on September 10, 1544, who named it Isla de San Nicolas de Tolentino.
According to Juan Ignacio Molina, the Dutch captain Joris van Spilbergen observed the use of chilihueques (a South American camelid) by native Mapuches of Mocha Island as plough animals in 1614.The Geographical, Natural and Civil History of Chili, [https://books.google.com/books?id=F4oIAAAAQAAJ Pages 15 and 16, Volume II]
Mocha Island was regularly visited by pirates and privateers from the Netherlands and England. Francis Drake and Olivier van Noort are known to have used the island as a supply base. When Drake was visiting it during his circumnavigation of the globe he was seriously hurt by its Mapuche inhabitants. Richard Hawkins, Drake's cousin, also passed with his ship the Dainty. In 1685, the Mapuche were transported by Governor José de Garro to a reducción on the plain on the right bank of the Bio Bio River called the Valley of Mocha that later became the location of the modern city of Concepción, Chile.
The waters off the island were inhabited by sperm whale, including Mocha Dick, who was depicted by American explorer and author Jeremiah N. Reynolds in his published account, "Mocha Dick: Or The White Whale of the Pacific: A Leaf from a Manuscript Journal" in May, 1839 in The Knickerbocker magazine in New York.J. N. Reynolds. "[https://books.google.com/books?id=RBfZAAAAMAAJ&dq=the%20knickerbocker%20mocha%20dick&pg=PA377 Mocha Dick: or the White Whale of the Pacific: A Leaf from a Manuscript Journal]," The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine. Vol. 13, No. 5, May 1839, pp. 377–392. Mocha Dick was one of the inspirations for the fictional whale Moby Dick in the 1851 novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.Delbanco, Andrew. Melville, His World and Work. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005: 167–168. {{ISBN|0-375-40314-0}}
Image:Carahue sector costero lafquenche.JPG coastal area with Mocha Island in the distance]]
=Polynesian contact=
In December 2007 several human skulls with Polynesian features, such as a pentagonal shape when viewed from behind, were found lying on a shelf in a museum in Concepción. These skulls originated from Mocha Island.{{cite journal |last=Lawler |first=Andrew |date=2010-06-11 |url=https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.328.5984.1344 |title=Beyond Kon-Tiki: Did Polynesians Sail to South America? |journal=Science |volume=328 |issue=5984 |pages=1344–1347 |doi=10.1126/science.328.5984.1344 |pmid=20538927 |bibcode=2010Sci...328.1344L}}
Geography
The island is approximately {{cvt|48|km2|sqmi|0}} in area, with a chain of mountains running north–south.
=Geology=
Geologically, the island is made of sedimentary rock stratum of Ranquil Formation, a formation whose main outcrops lie in the continent.{{cite book |last=García A. |first=Floreal |date=1968 |title=El Terciario de Chile Zona Central|editor-last=Ceccioni|editor-first=Giovanni |location=Santiago de Chile |publisher=Editorial Andrés Bello |pages=25–57 |language=es}} The island was permanently uplifted as result of the 2010 Chile earthquake but this uplift was less than in the adjacent coast where Tirúa had the largest uplift of all the coast.{{Cite journal |title=Unexpected coseismic surface uplift at Tirúa-Mocha Island area of south Chile before and during the Mw 8.8 Maule 2010 earthquake: a possible upper plate splay fault |journal=Andean Geology |url=http://www.andeangeology.cl/index.php/revista1/article/view/V47n2-3057/pdf |last1=Quezada |first1=Jorge |volume=47 |last2=Jaque |first2=Edilia |publisher=National Geology and Mining Service |issue=2 |doi=10.5027/andgeoV47n2-3057 |year=2020 |last3=Catalán |first3=Nicole |last4=Belmonte |first4=Arturo |last5=Fernández |first5=Alfonso |last6=Isla |first6=Federico |page=295|doi-access=free|hdl=11336/128966 |hdl-access=free }} The existence of a splay fault called Tirúa-Mocha Fault may explain the different behaviour of Mocha Island relative to the mainland during this earthquake.
=Environment=
Mocha Island National Reserve covers approximately 45% of the island's surface. The Pacific degu (Octodon pacificus), also known as the Mocha Island degu, a species of rodent in the family Octodontidae, is endemic to Mocha Island. The island has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports significant populations of pink-footed shearwaters, Peruvian pelicans, red-legged cormorants and elegant terns.{{cite web |url= https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/24752|title=Isla Mocha |author= |date=2024|website= BirdLife Data Zone|publisher= BirdLife International|access-date= 2024-10-02}}
=Climate=
{{Weather box|width=auto
|metric first=y
|single line=y
|collapsed = Y
|location = Mocha Island
|Jan high C = 18.2
|Feb high C = 18.1
|Mar high C = 17.1
|Apr high C = 15.7
|May high C = 14.7
|Jun high C = 13.3
|Jul high C = 12.9
|Aug high C = 12.9
|Sep high C = 13.2
|Oct high C = 13.9
|Nov high C = 15.5
|Dec high C = 17.5
| year high C =
|Jan mean C = 15.5
|Feb mean C = 15.1
|Mar mean C = 14.6
|Apr mean C = 13.4
|May mean C = 12.0
|Jun mean C = 10.7
|Jul mean C = 10.4
|Aug mean C = 10.1
|Sep mean C = 10.3
|Oct mean C = 11.6
|Nov mean C = 12.9
|Dec mean C = 14.6
| year mean C =
|Jan low C = 12.2
|Feb low C = 12.0
|Mar low C = 11.7
|Apr low C = 10.4
|May low C = 9.1
|Jun low C = 7.7
|Jul low C = 7.4
|Aug low C = 6.9
|Sep low C = 7.3
|Oct low C = 8.5
|Nov low C = 9.7
|Dec low C = 11.2
| year low C =
|precipitation colour = green
|Jan precipitation mm = 33.9
|Feb precipitation mm = 37.8
|Mar precipitation mm = 83.3
|Apr precipitation mm = 129.1
|May precipitation mm = 217.9
|Jun precipitation mm = 207.2
|Jul precipitation mm = 203.5
|Aug precipitation mm = 149.0
|Sep precipitation mm = 113.6
|Oct precipitation mm = 55.9
|Nov precipitation mm = 77.9
|Dec precipitation mm = 63.8
|year precipitation mm =
| Jan humidity = 86
| Feb humidity = 87
| Mar humidity = 88
| Apr humidity = 89
| May humidity = 89
| Jun humidity = 89
| Jul humidity = 90
| Aug humidity = 89
| Sep humidity = 89
| Oct humidity = 87
| Nov humidity = 86
| Dec humidity = 85
| year humidity =
|source 1 = Bioclimatografia de Chile{{cite web
| first1 = Ernst
| last1 = Hajek
| first2 = Francesco
| url = http://www.ecolyma.cl/documentos/bioclimatografia_de_chile.pdf
| title = Bioclimatografia de Chile
| access-date = 27 May 2024
| last2 = Castri
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091122225453/http://www.ecolyma.cl/documentos/bioclimatografia_de_chile.pdf
|archive-date = 22 November 2009
| language = es
| year = 1975}}
}}
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=CYYCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA449 Francisco Solano Asta-Buruaga y Cienfuegos, Diccionario geográfico de la República de Chile, SEGUNDA EDICIÓN CORREGIDA Y AUMENTADA, NUEVA YORK, D. APPLETON Y COMPAÑÍA. 1899.] pg. 449–450 Mocha (Isla de)
External links
- {{Commons category-inline|Isla Mocha}}
- {{Wikivoyage inline|Isla Mocha|Mocha Island}}
{{Pirates}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Islands of Biobío Region
Category:Archaeological sites in Chile
Category:Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Category:Pacific islands of Chile
Category:Important Bird Areas of Chile
Category:Important Bird Areas of Oceania
Category:Coasts of Biobío Region
Category:Populated coastal places in Chile