Hiva Oa, Marquesas Archipelago
We awoke this morning at sunrise alongside a spectacular volcanic island towering up into the sky before us – Hiva Oa, the exotic name well-suiting the strange-looking land.
Yesterday we started exploring the fascinating Marquesas Islands, a complete visual shock compared to the last few days spent cruising the largest group of coral atolls in the world, the Tuamotu Islands. It has been truly fascinating travelling through this area and admiring the immense geological diversity amongst the islands that stretch across the Eastern-most boundaries of the South Pacific region.
Most of us are familiar with Charles Darwin through his revolutionary theory of evolution by the means of natural selection, yet few know that actually his first original theory concerned the atolls that he found in the Pacific and Indian oceans. Prior to Darwin’s trip around the world on the HMS Beagle, Charles Lyell had theorized that these huge oceanic circles of coral reef, enclosing colourful lagoons, had formed around the rims of giant submerged volcanoes. Darwin had read and assimilated this theory, but then saw very much what we have observed along this trip: giant oceanic volcanoes towering up above us, their coasts lined with fringing reefs. Slightly sunken volcanoes with circling barrier reefs found further offshore. And finally no volcano at all, just those treacherous circles of reef surrounding turquoise lagoons. His amazing insight allowed him to see these not as separate entities but as the evolution of oceanic volcanoes in tropical waters - what is now known as the “subsidence theory” of the formation of atolls. Huge volcanoes eventually rise up through the waters, creating oceanic islands. In the warm tropical waters surrounding the volcanoes millions of tiny coral polyps precipitate calcium carbonate to form fascinating reef systems. As the volcanoes become extinct and drift away from the hotspot that formed them, they gradually start sinking below the surface and erode away. The coral polyps keep growing up towards the surface, and when the volcano disappears, if the subsidence occurred at the right rate, the ring-shaped reef lives on as an atoll.
The processes have given rise to some of the most spectacular islands in the world, that have fired the imagination of all those who have witnessed their wild, untamed beauty. Today we reached the island of Hiva Oa, which was where the famous French painter Gauguin, who so captured the essence of these magical islands, found his final resting place. We spent the whole day exploring this spectacular island, with its spell-binding scenery, warm and friendly inhabitants and rich culture.
We awoke this morning at sunrise alongside a spectacular volcanic island towering up into the sky before us – Hiva Oa, the exotic name well-suiting the strange-looking land.
Yesterday we started exploring the fascinating Marquesas Islands, a complete visual shock compared to the last few days spent cruising the largest group of coral atolls in the world, the Tuamotu Islands. It has been truly fascinating travelling through this area and admiring the immense geological diversity amongst the islands that stretch across the Eastern-most boundaries of the South Pacific region.
Most of us are familiar with Charles Darwin through his revolutionary theory of evolution by the means of natural selection, yet few know that actually his first original theory concerned the atolls that he found in the Pacific and Indian oceans. Prior to Darwin’s trip around the world on the HMS Beagle, Charles Lyell had theorized that these huge oceanic circles of coral reef, enclosing colourful lagoons, had formed around the rims of giant submerged volcanoes. Darwin had read and assimilated this theory, but then saw very much what we have observed along this trip: giant oceanic volcanoes towering up above us, their coasts lined with fringing reefs. Slightly sunken volcanoes with circling barrier reefs found further offshore. And finally no volcano at all, just those treacherous circles of reef surrounding turquoise lagoons. His amazing insight allowed him to see these not as separate entities but as the evolution of oceanic volcanoes in tropical waters - what is now known as the “subsidence theory” of the formation of atolls. Huge volcanoes eventually rise up through the waters, creating oceanic islands. In the warm tropical waters surrounding the volcanoes millions of tiny coral polyps precipitate calcium carbonate to form fascinating reef systems. As the volcanoes become extinct and drift away from the hotspot that formed them, they gradually start sinking below the surface and erode away. The coral polyps keep growing up towards the surface, and when the volcano disappears, if the subsidence occurred at the right rate, the ring-shaped reef lives on as an atoll.
The processes have given rise to some of the most spectacular islands in the world, that have fired the imagination of all those who have witnessed their wild, untamed beauty. Today we reached the island of Hiva Oa, which was where the famous French painter Gauguin, who so captured the essence of these magical islands, found his final resting place. We spent the whole day exploring this spectacular island, with its spell-binding scenery, warm and friendly inhabitants and rich culture.
