View of Sala-y-Gómez Image courtesy of Matthew Mumford
Sala y Gómez Island (Spanish Isla Sala y Gómez) is a small uninhabited Chilean island in the Pacific Ocean. It is the easternmost point in the Polynesian Triangle.
Geography[]
Map of Sala-y-Gómez
Isla Sala y Gómez is located at Error en la secuencia de órdenes: no existe el módulo «Coordinates».
, 3,220 km west of the Chilean mainland, 2,500 km west of Chile's Desventuradas Islands, and 415 km east-northeast of Easter Island, the closest landmass. Sala y Gómez consists of two rocks, a smaller one in the west measuring 4 hectare in area (270 meters north-south, 200 meters east-west), and a larger one in the east measuring 11 ha (500 meters north-south, 270 meters east-west), which are connected by a narrow isthmus in the north, averaging approximately 30 meters in width. The total area is approximately 15 hectares (0.15 km²), and the total length northwest-southeast is 770 meters. Its highest point, 30 meters above sea level, is in the south of the eastern rock, less than 30 meters from the shore, above a 10 meters high cliff. The highest elevation on the western rock is 26 meters.
The island is showered with saltwater, and the shoreline is dotted with countless tidepools. Because the shoreline consists primarily of cliffs, landing on the island is difficult in all but the calmest of conditions.
Aerial view of Sala-y-Gómez
There are no permanent sources of freshwater on the island, but there is an intermittent rainwater pool in a depression on the eastern rock, which often forms a cache of freshwater 75 meters in diameter. This is essential for the survival of the large population of seabirds.
Even when this area appears dry at the surface, the sand is still moist just a few inches below the surface. This flat sandy area is also the only place on the island suitable for landing helicopters.
In 1994, the Chilean Navy installed an automated beacon and a tsunami warning system. The island has since been declared a nature sanctuary.[sanctuary]
History[]
Human visitation[]
Position of Sala-y-Gómez relative to Easter Island and the South American mainland
Although there is no evidence that the island has ever been permanently inhabited, Easter Islanders were certainly aware of its existence, as indicated by the pre-European name of the island. Tradition says that the island was occasionally visited to collect fledglings and eggs. The island was said to have been difficult to land upon, because the gods Make-make and Huau protected the seabirds from those who ate their eggs and offspring. Because of these historical connections to Easter Island, Sala y Gómez can be considered part of Polynesia; if so its location makes it the easternmost landmass of Polynesia. The title is usually awarded to Easter Island, 415 km further west.[polynesia]
The first European to sight the island was José Salas Valdés, a Spanish sailor, on 23 August, 1793. Between then and 1917, visits are recorded in at least 1805, 1806, 1817, 1825, 1875, and 1917.[visitors]
Name[]
The Rapa Nui name for the island is Motu Motiro Hiva or Manu Motu Motiro Hiva, meaning (Bird's) Islet on the way to Hiva. Hiva is part of the names of several Polynesian islands, particularly in the Marquesas Islands. In the Rapa Nui language, however, it means "far off lands" and is the name for the mythical original homeland of the Polynesians. From Easter Island, Sala y Gómez is almost the opposite direction to the Marquesas, and the next inhabited territory "behind" Sala y Gómez would be the coast of South America. This was one of the factors that led Thor Heyerdahl to theorize that there was pre-European contact between Polynesia and South America.
The current name, Sala y Gómez, is derived from the name of José Salas Valdés, and from José Manuel Gómez, who made the first detailed description of the island, following a visit beginning 18 October, 1805. In recognition of Valdés' name, the island is sometimes also referred to as Isla Salas-y-Gómez.[name]
Political situation[]
Sala y Gómez was claimed by Chile in 1808, and from 1888, was administered by the Chilean Navy. Beginning 1 March, 1966, the island was included in the department of Isla de Pascua. 25 July, 1974, the department was reorganized as the province of Isla de Pascua.[province]
Geology[]
Map of Isla Sala y Gómez
Sala y Gómez is a volcanic high island, consisting of the summit of a large mountain which rises about 3500 metres from the sea bed. Scott Reef (not to be confused with Scott Reefs off Western Australia), 1.5 km further northeast, is another peak of the same mostly submarine mountain, and has a least depth of 25 meters above it. Sala y Gómez is part of the same Sala y Gómez Ridge, as Easter Island to the west, the only places where the otherwise submarine mountain range extends above sea level. There are several dozen more seamounts in the range, which extends 2232 km eastward until Nazca Seamount at Error en la secuencia de órdenes: no existe el módulo «Coordinates».
, where it joins the Nazca Ridge.[seamounts]
Sala y Gómez is the fourth youngest mountain in the chain, which is being formed by the Nazca Plate floating over the Easter hotspot. The two youngest mountains in the chain, Pukao and Moai are sea mounts to the west of Easter Island.[hotspot] [1]
Flora[]
Sala y Gómez and Easter Island form a distinct ecoregion the Rapa Nui subtropical broadleaf forests. However Sala y Gómez is largely barren with no forests and only four species of terrestrial plants; these include Asplenium (or "Spleenwort"), a type of fern which only grows in protected areas at higher elevations.
Fauna[]
Besides a number of insect species, the only non-aquatic fauna are about a dozen species of seabird, which use the island as a rookery, with the estimated number of adult birds in 1985:
| Species (Polynesian Name) | Scientific Name | Adult birds in 1985 |
|---|---|---|
| Christmas Shearwater | Puffinus nativitatis | 5000 |
| Masked Booby (Manukena) | Sula dactylatra | 3000 |
| Brown Noddy | Anous stolidus | 1400 |
| Great Frigatebird (Makohe) | Fregata minor | 700 |
| Sooty Tern | Onychoprion fuscata | 200 |
| Blue Noddy | Procelsterna cerulea | 80 |
| Red-tailed Tropicbird (Tevake) | Phaëthon rubricauda | 30 |
| Polynesian (White-throated) Storm-petrel | Nesofregetta fuliginosa | 2 |
| White Tern | Gygis alba | 2 |
| Red-footed Booby | Sula sula | 2 |
| Black Noddy | Anous minutus | 2 |
| Grey Noddy | Procelsterna albivitta | 1 |
Those numbers may vary considerably from year to year, due to weather conditions, and it has been observed that the overall numbers were much lower in 1986.
Marine fauna includes a large number of littoral crustaceans, echinoidea, etc., as well as a large assortment of reef fishes and a number of species of shark, which swimmers report to be "curious", but not aggressive.
Cultural references[]
German bard Adalbert von Chamisso wrote a poem about the island, based on his reflections upon visiting the island in 1816.[poem]
See also[]
- San Félix y San Ambrosio
- Juan Fernández
Notes[]
- ↑ Wetlands.org information about the designation of SyG as a wildlife refuge
- ↑ Te Rapa Nui (The Gazette of Easter Island) Vol. 4 No. 8, Summer/Fall 1999
- ↑ The Islands from notes on the Cordell Expeditions. Aug. 1995
- ↑ Revista Española del Pacífico No. 2, 1992. From the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes.
- ↑ Chilian history page outlining history of Rapa Nui province
- ↑ Radiometric Ages for Seamounts from the Easter-Salas y Gomez-Nazca Hotspot Track from Smithsonian/NASA ADS Physics Abstract Service. Duncan, R.A., et al.
- ↑ Priliminary Multibeam Mapping and Dredging Results along the Nazca Ridge and Easter/Salas y Gomez Chain from the 2002 Ocean Sciences Meeting
- ↑ Address by Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia Siim Kallas (as HTML) from a Eurovision website.
References[]
- González-Ferrán, Oscar (1995). Volcanes de Chile. Santiago, Chile: Instituto Geográfico Militar. pp. 640 pp. ISBN 956-202-054-1. (in Spanish; also includes volcanoes of Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru)
External links[]
- document with sketch map
- http://www.rapanui.co.cl/numero8/syg.htm
- http://www.gunthar.com/archive/easter_island_95/ei_web_site/islands.html
- http://www.ecole-navale.fr/fr/irenav/cv/poupin/publis/Checklist_Easter_Poupin.pdf
- Adalbert von Chamisso's Salas y Gomez at Gutenberg (in German)
Plantilla:Polynesia
ca:Illa Sala i Gómez de:Sala y Gómez es:Isla Sala y Gómez eu:Sala eta Gomez uhartea fr:Île Sala y Gómez it:Isola Sala y Gómez nl:Sala y Gómez ja:サラ・イ・ゴメス島 no:Isla Sala y Gómez pl:Sala y Gómez pt:Sala y Gómez ru:Сала-и-Гомес fi:Sala y Gómez sv:Sala y Gómez