Tofua

Tofua is a volcanic island in the Haapai group of the Tonga Islands and is located in the Pacific Ocean. It has an area of ​​55.63 km ² and has applied since 2006 as uninhabited.

Geography

Tofua and the island 3.4 km to the northeast lies Kao belong together with the remaining Haapai Islands to the Kingdom of Tonga. Within the Haapai group, the two in relation relatively large islands in the northwest. The water depth between Tofua and Kao is around two thousand meters.

Geology

The caldera of the volcano with steep walls has a diameter of 5 km and contains a freshwater lake whose level is approximately 30 meters above the sea level. On the north side of the caldera lake later formed three volcanic cones, the most northerly, Lofia, wide with 70 m and 120 m deep crater, in historical times was repeatedly active: 1774, 1792, 1854, 1885, 1906, 1958-1960, 1993 2004, 2006 as well as 2008 to 2011. the highest point of the island with a height of 515 meters on the edge of the caldera.

History

James Cook sailed between 1774 and the dormant volcano Tofua Kao through, but not landed.

1789 William Bligh was the first European to set foot on the island. He reached Tofua on the same day on which he had been suspended along with 18 loyal seamen of the Bounty, and remained four days to equip themselves with provisions. He was with the locals but not to an agreement and had to flee, one of the men was killed with stones.

2008, the Swiss pro snowboarder and adventurer Xavier Rosset lived for 300 days eremitical on the uninhabited island, by its own account as a self- test for self-discovery. As equipment he had only one satellite phone, through which he was able to communicate with a doctor, a machete, a pocket knife, a lighter, a first- aid kit and a camera together with solar panel to charge the battery case.

Economy and infrastructure

Tofua is no longer inhabited, but it is used for agricultural purposes for the kava cultivation. The few men who occasionally residing for this purpose on the island, use the huts of the abandoned village Manaka to the southeast of the island as a guest. Other settlements on the island were Hotaane in the west and in the north Hokula. Five people still were counted to 1996 census, in 2006, however, the island is considered to be uninhabited.