• DOI:10.3389/feart.2021.748755
• Corpus ID: 245336997

Bridging Legends and Science: Field Evidence of a Large Tsunami that Affected the Kingdom of Tonga in the 15th Century

@inproceedings{Lavigne2021BridgingLA,
  title={Bridging Legends and Science: Field Evidence of a Large Tsunami that Affected the Kingdom of Tonga in the 15th Century},
  author={Franck Lavigne and Julie Morin and Patrick Wassmer and Olivier Weller and Taaniela Kula and Ana V. Maea and Karim Kelfoun and Fatima Mokadem and Rapha{\"e}l Paris and Mukhamad Ngainul Malawani and Audrey Faral and Mhammed Benbakkar and S{\'e}gol{\`e}ne Saulnier-Copard and C{\'e}line M. Vidal and Tu’I’ahai Tu’I’afitu and Fuka Kitekei’aho and Martin Trautmann and Christopher A. Gomez},
  booktitle={Frontiers in Earth Science},
  year={2021}
}

• F. Lavigne, Julie Morin, +15 authors Christopher A. Gomez
• Published in Frontiers in Earth Science 20 December 2021
• Environmental Science

The pre-colonial history (i.e. before the 16th century) of Tonga and West Polynesia still suffers from major gaps despite significant scientific advances in recent years, particularly in the field of archaeology. By the 14th century, the powerful Tu’i Tonga kingdom united the islands of the Tongan archipelago under a centralised authority and, according to tradition, extended its influence to neighbouring island groups in the Central Pacific. However, some periods of deep crisis were identified, e.g. in the mid- 15th century, marked by an abrupt cessation of inter-archipelago migration on the deep seas in the Pacific, significant cultural changes, and a decrease in accessible natural resources. The origins of these disturbances are still debated, and they are usually assigned to internal political problems or loss of external influence vis-à-vis neighboring chiefdoms. However, the hypothesis of a major natural disaster was rarely suggested up to now, while field evidence points to the occurrence of a very large tsunami in the past, including the presence of numerous megablocks that were deposited by a “red wave” (or peau kula, which also mean tsunami in the Tongan language) according to a local myth. Drawing on a body of new evidence from sedimentary signatures and radiocarbon dating of charcoal and marine bioclasts, geomorphology, and sedimentology, in support of previously published archaeological data, we argue that a large tsunami inundated large areas of Tongatapu island in the mid-15th century with runup heights up to 30 m, and that the Tu’i Tonga kingdom was severely impacted by this event. We also discuss the likely sources of this tsunami.