Vanikoro

Vanicoro or Vanikolo is an island in the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands ( SW Pacific) and is considered part of the Santa Cruz Islands. The local name is Banie. Neighboring islands are Utupua (about 40 km northwest of Vanicoro ) and the small island of Tikopia (about 140 km south-east ).

Geography

The islands ( it is in fact two larger islands, of which Banie which is much larger and two smaller islands ) lie approximately at 11.6 ° south latitude and 167 ° east longitude, and cover an area of 173 km ². Located just off the main island Banie ( 150 km ² ) is likewise inhabited island Teanu ( over 20 km ²), and the smaller islands Manieve and Nanunga. With the exception of the coral island Nanunga, lying on the northern fringing reef, the islands are of volcanic origin. Surrounded coral atoll equal to the islands, most of which are densely forested. The highest point is Mt Banie with about 923 m represents a insight into the morphology is the image in the infobox.

Geology

Vanicoro and the surrounding islands were probably formed during the Pliocene and Pleistocene by volcanism. There were funded mainly basalts. A more precise age for the volcanics does not exist. Cause of the volcanism in this area is the subduction of the Indian- Australian plate beneath the Pacific. The island is now volcanically inactive and eroded widely. Nevertheless, some crater structures are recognizable, such as at Mt Banie on the eponymous island at Mt Tangalo on Teanu. The island Manieve in the center of the island group probably represents a vent filling the volcano dar.

Population

The islands are (from 700 to Banie and the rest to Tevai ) sparsely populated with a population of 900. The seven villages are all on the coast ( six to Banie, three Polynesian Polynesian with the main village Peu, with around 100 inhabitants, and the capital of Puma, the only village on Tevai, with 200 inhabitants ). The mountainous and forested interior of the island is uninhabited. The Melanesians provide a number of 600, the majority of the population. On the southeast coast, there are also three Polynesian villages. The southeast part of the island is a Polynesian enclave. Due to the remoteness of the islands, the inhabitants are dependent mainly on fishing and agriculture for food assistance. Contact to other islands is only irregularly over supply ships from Honiara because Vanicoro neither a runway nor a developed port has.

History

The island is traditional Melanesian. The Polynesians have come in the last centuries of Tikopia after Vanicoro. They settled temporarily on Teanu in the northeast, but currently live in Peu and two other villages in the south of the main island Banie.

The island Vanicoro was famous during the 18th and 19th centuries when it was searched for survivors of the La Pérouse expedition. The two French ships L' Astrolabe and La Boussole under the command of Jean -François de La Pérouse in 1788 beached on the coast of Vanicoro. There were of subsequent expeditions ( Jules Dumont d' Urville and others, 1828) found no survivors. The sinking of the l' Astrolabe is shown on a postage stamp in the Solomon Islands. Jules Verne mentioned Vanicoro and the La Pérouse expedition in his novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Jack London describes in his novel Jerry, the islanders a chief island of the Solomon Islands, which has the severed and prepared by Südseeart head of some of the expedition members and about hiring considerations about death.

Swell

• B. D. Hackman, R. A. Dennis, J. B. Lai: 1:50,000. Solomon Islands. Vanikolo. Eastern outer islands geological map sheet EOI 6 Geological Surveys Division of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Honiara ( Solomon Islands ) 1977 ( coordinates: 46 E 166 - E 167 01/ 011 35 S - S 011 45).
• Jean -François de La Pérouse: To the Cliffs of Vanicoro. Trip around the world on behalf of Louis XVI. From 1785 to 1788. After La Pérouse's diaries recorded by ML -A. Milet - Mureau. Translated, edited and published by Klaus Fischer. Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin, 1987, ISBN 3-355-00540-1.
• Alexandre François: Maps of the island Vanicoro. CNRS, Paris.