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Mont Fareura
Mont Fareura
	NASA Geocover 2000 image
Highest point
Elevation	435 m (1,427 ft)
Prominence	435 m (1,427 ft)
Coordinates	17°52′S 148°4′W / 17.867°S 148.067°W
Geography
Location	Society Islands
Geology
Mountain type	Stratovolcano
Last eruption	Unknown

Mehetia
Native name: Mehetiʻa
	Coastal view of Osnaburg Island, now Mehetia
Geography
Location	Pacific Ocean
Coordinates	17°52′S 148°04′W / 17.867°S 148.067°W
Archipelago	Society Islands
Total islands	1
Major islands	Mehetia
Area	2.3 km2 (0.89 sq mi)
Highest elevation	435 m (1427 ft)
Highest point	Mont Fareura
Administration
	France
Overseas collectivity	French Polynesia
Administrative subdivision	Windward Islands
Commune	Taiarapu-Est
Demographics
Population	uninhabited

Mehetiʻa or Meʻetiʻa is a volcanic island in the Windward Islands, in the east of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is a very young active stratovolcano 110 kilometres (68 mi) east of the Taiarapu Peninsula of Tahiti. It belongs to the Teahitiʻa-Mehetia hotspot.^[1]

The island has an area of 2.3 square kilometres (0.89 sq mi) and its highest point is 435 metres (1,427 ft). The peak is a well-defined volcanic crater. In 1981 the island was the centre of earthquakes.^[2]^[3]

History

Tahitian oral tradition holds that navigators stopped at Mehitiʻa, which was regarded as sacred, on their long voyage to New Zealand.^[4] This oral history correlates with geological evidence found in southern New Zealand which can be traced back to Mehitiʻa.^[5]

The early Polynesian voyagers commonly gave Polynesian ancestral names and symbolism to new places.^[6] The high point of Mehetia is Mount Hiurai (Hi’ura’i/Hikurangi)^[7] The name Hikurangi in Aotearoa / New Zealand probably came from Mehetia^[8] and the name Hi’ura’i probably has its origin in Siʻulagi (Siʻulangi) in Taʻu, Samoa.^[9]

The first European sighting was by the Spanish expedition of Pedro Fernández de Quirós on 9 February 1606, that charted it as Decena (ten in Spanish).^[10] Later on it was sighted by Samuel Wallis in HMS Dolphin 1767 and Louis Antoine de Bougainville in 1768.^[11] It was also sighted by Spanish navigator Domingo de Boenechea on November 6, 1772, on ship Aguila.^[11]^: 241 He named this island San Cristóbal.

Administration

Mehetiʻa is administratively part of the commune (municipality) of Taiarapu-Est and of its easternmost commune associée Tautira. The island is uninhabited and does not have much vegetation but has a small coral reef on the underwater slopes.

References

^ Cheminee, J.L.; Hekinian, R.; Talandier, Jacques; Albarède, Francis; Devey, Colin; Francheteau, J.; Lancelot, Y. (March 1989). "Geology of an active hot spot: Teahitia-Mehetia region in the South Central Pacific". Marine Geophysical Research. 11 (1): 27–50. Bibcode:1989MarGR..11...27C. doi:10.1007/BF00286246. S2CID 129178596.
^ Binard, N.; Maury, R. C.; Guille, G.; Talandier, J.; Gillot, P.Y.; Cotten, J. (March 1993). "Mehetia Island, South Pacific: geology and petrology of the emerged part of the Society hot spot". Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. 55 (3–4): 239–260. Bibcode:1993JVGR...55..239B. doi:10.1016/0377-0273(93)90040-X.
^ Talandier, Jacques (1984). "The volcanoseismic swarms of 1981–1983 in the Tahiti-Mehetia Area, French Polynesia" (PDF). Journal of Geophysical Research. 89 (B13): 11216–11234. Bibcode:1984JGR....8911216T. doi:10.1029/JB089iB13p11216. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
^ "Scoria blocks reinforces early Polynesian links to Southland". The Southland Times. Stuff. 3 April 2019. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
^ "Rock find in New Zealand rewrites story of Polynesian voyage". The New Zealand Herald. 2019-04-06. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2020-08-24.
^ "Ancestral Naming of Places",
^ "Mount Hiurai (Hi’ura’i/Hikurangi)"
^ "Mount Hiurai (Hi’ura’i/Hikurangi)"
^ "Siʻulagi(Siʻulangi)in Taʻu"
^ Corney, Bolton Granvill The quest and occupation of Tahiti by emissaries of Spain during the years 1772-1776, London, 1913, Vol I, p.XXX
^ ^a ^b Salmond, Anne (2010). Aphrodite's Island. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 39, 45, 93. ISBN 9780520261143.