Tofua

The island is oval, measuring approximately 80 square kilometers.{{cite journal |url=https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/4060/v24n3-333-350.pdf |title=The Geology of Tofua Island, Tonga |last1=Bauer |first1=Glenn R. |journal=Pacific Science |volume=24 |issue=3 |year=1970 |pages=333–350 |access-date=22 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220122025300/https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/4060/v24n3-333-350.pdf |archive-date=22 January 2022}} Its sides rise steeply to the rim of the caldera, which is partially filled by a volcanic crater lake with a depth of {{convert|500|m|ft|abbr=on}}.{{cite gvp|vnum=243060|name=Tofua}} The caldera was formed by a major eruption around 1,000 years BP, which left deposits up to {{convert|0.5|m}} thick on islands over {{convert|40|km}} away.{{cite journal |title=Mafic Plinian volcanism and ignimbrite emplacement at Tofua volcano, Tonga |last1=Caulfield |first1=J. T. |last2=Cronin |first2=S. J. |last3=Turner |first3=S. P. |last4=Cooper |first4=L. B. |journal=Bulletin of Volcanology |volume=73 |issue=9 |year=2011 |pages=1259–1277 |doi=10.1007/s00445-011-0477-9 |bibcode=2011BVol...73.1259C |s2cid=140540145 }}

Tofua's pre-caldera activity is recorded by a sequence of pyroclastic deposits and lavas constituting the older cone, followed on the northern part of the island by froth lavas or welded and unwelded ignimbrite. Following the caldera collapse, lavas were erupted from the northern part of the island and the caldera-rim fissure zone, scoria and lavas from the caldera-wall fissure zones, pyroclastics and lavas from intracaldera cones, and recent pyroclastic fall deposits on the outer cone. Eruptive products are mainly basaltic andesites and andesites, plus occasional dacite flows within the older cone. A postcaldera cone with fumarolic 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.

In 1774 Captain Cook sailed between Tofua and Kao, but did not land.{{cite web |url=https://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/the-friendly-isles |title=The Friendly Isles |publisher=Captain Cook Society |access-date=22 January 2022}} He observed smoke rising from the island, and that "[the] brow of the Hill had been consumed by fire".

The Mutiny on the Bounty took place on 28 April 1789, about {{convert|30|nmi|km mi}} from Tofua. After being cast off the ship, Captain William Bligh navigated the overcrowded {{convert|23|ft|m|adj=on}} open launch on an epic 41-day voyage first to Tofua and then to the Dutch East Indies port of Kupang on Timor equipped with a quadrant, a pocket watch, sextant and a compass. The mutineers refused them charts so Bligh had to navigate to Timor from memory.{{Cite web|title=A Voyage to the South Sea|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15411/15411-h/15411-h.htm#ch13|website=www.gutenberg.org|access-date=2020-05-07}} He recorded the distance as {{convert|3618|nmi|km mi}}. He passed through the difficult Torres Strait 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.{{Cite web|title=Pitcairn Islands Study Center|url=https://library.puc.edu/pitcairn/bounty/crew4.shtml#norton|website=library.puc.edu|access-date=2020-05-07}}

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, Luis Marden claimed to have found this cave and the grave of John Norton.{{Cite book|last=danielramirez|url=https://archive.org/details/196804|title=National Geographic 1968|date=2016-05-30}} Both findings were later disproved by Bengt Danielsson (who had been a member of the 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition) in the June 1985 issue of the Pacific Islands Monthly. 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.{{Cite web|title=Vol. 56, No. 6 (Jun. 1, 1985)|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-335176171|website=nla.gov.au|language=en|access-date=2020-05-07}}

In May 1943, a lifeboat containing 23 survivors from the Liberty ship 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 patrol aircraft of the Royal New Zealand Air Force and were picked up the following day by the US Navy {{sclass|YMS-1|minesweeper}} YMS-89 and taken to Tongatapu.{{Cite book|last=Cressman |first=Robert J. |title=The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II |date=2016 |publisher=Naval Institute Press |isbn=978-1-68247-154-8 |location=Annapolis |oclc=1030816142}}

Tofua is no longer inhabited, but it is used for agriculture, specifically for the cultivation of Kava. The few people who occasionally stay on the island for this purpose use the huts of the abandoned village of Manaka on the east coast of the island as accommodation. Other settlements on the island were Hotaʻane in the west and Hokula in the north. In the 1996 census, five people were still counted, but since 2006, the island has been considered uninhabited.{{cite web |url=https://tonga-data.sprep.org/system/files/2006_Administrative_and_Basic_tables_Vol1.pdf |title=Kingdom of Tonga 2006 Census |author= |date=30 November 2006 |website=tonga-data.sprep.org |publisher=Kingdom of Tonga, Statistics Department |access-date=2 March 2024 |quote=}}

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.{{Cite web|title=Xavier Rosset: 300 days alone on an island|url=https://www.tedxgeneva.net/talks/xavier-rosset-300-days-alone-on-an-island/|website=TEDxGeneva|language=fr-FR|access-date=2020-05-07}}{{cite web |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/180276/swiss-alone-on-remote-tongan-island-attracting-a-lot-of-interest |title=Swiss alone on remote Tongan island attracting a lot of interest |publisher=RNZ |date=10 November 2008 |access-date=22 January 2022}}

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

The island is the largest area of undisturbed Tongan tropical moist forests in Tonga, and was designated a national park in 2001.{{cite web |url=https://dopa-explorer.jrc.ec.europa.eu/wdpa/315555 |title=Tofua Island |publisher=Digital Observatory for Protected Areas (DOPA) Explorer |access-date=22 January 2022}} It has been designated an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International.{{cite web |url=http://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/tofua-and-kao-iba-tonga |title=Tofua and Kao |publisher=BirdLife International |access-date=22 January 2022}} Birds include the Many-colored fruit dove, Crimson-crowned fruit dove, Blue-crowned lorikeet, Polynesian wattled honeyeater, Polynesian triller, Fiji shrikebill, and Polynesian starling.{{cite web |url=http://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/tofua-and-kao-iba-tonga/details |title=Tofua and Kao: Details |publisher=BirdLife International |date= |access-date=22 January 2022}}

• List of volcanoes in Tonga

{{reflist}}

• [http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Tonga/description_tonga_volcanoes.html United States Geological Survey]
• [http://library.puc.edu/pitcairn/bounty/encyclopedia.shtml Pitcairn Islands Study Center]
• [https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/300-days-of-desert-island-solitude/660754 300 days of desert island solitude]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leHb2hdCLqo 300 Days alone documentary]

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{{Volcanoes in Tonga}}

Category:Calderas of Oceania

Category:Active volcanoes

Category:Volcanoes of Tonga

Category:Islands of Tonga

Category:Volcanic crater lakes

Category:Haʻapai