Sala y Gómez

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Sala y Gómez Island (Spanish Isla Sala y Gómez) is a small uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean belonging to Chile. It is the easternmost point in Polynesia.

Contents 1 Geography 2 History 2.1 Human visitation 2.2 Name 2.3 Political situation 3 Geology 4 Flora 5 Fauna 6 Cultural references 7 See also 8 Notes 9 External links

[edit] Geography

Isla Sala y Gómez is located at 26°28′S, 105°28′W, 3,220 km west of the Chilean mainland, 2,500 km west of Chile's Desventuradas Islands, and 415 km east-northeast from Easter Island, the closest landmass. Sala y Gómez consists of two rocks, a smaller one in the west measuring 4 ha 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 over the two connected rocks northwest-southeast is 770 meters. At its highest point, in the south of the eastern rock, less than 30 meters from the shore, above a cliff 10 meters high, the island measures 30 meters in height. The highest elevation on the western rock is 26 meters high.

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.

Although there are no permanent sources of freshwater on the island, there is a depression on the eastern rock that often forms a cachet of freshwater, 75 meters in diameter, formed by rainwater—and essential for the survival of the large population of seabirds. At times when this area appears dry at the surface, the sand is still moist just a few inches below the surface. The flat, sandy vicinity of this intermittent rainwater pool is the only place on the island suitable as a helicopter landing place.

In 1994, the Chilean Navy installed an automated beacon and a tsunami warning system. The island has since been declared a nature sanctuary.^[1]

[edit] History

[edit] Human visitation

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 is considered part of Polynesia. Its location makes it, then, the easternmost landmass of Polynesia, a title that is generally awarded to Easter Island, 415 km further west.^[2]

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.^[3]

[edit] 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 Rapanui language, however, it means "far off lands" and is the name for the mythical original homeland of the Polynesians. Seen from Easter Island, Sala y Gómez is in the opposite direction of 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.^[4]

[edit] 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.^[5]

[edit] Geology

Sala y Gómez is a volcanic high island, consisting of the highest part of the summit of a large mountain which rises about 3500 m 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 Sala y Gómez Ridge, as is 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 23°36′S, 83°30′W, where it joins the Nazca Ridge.^[6]

Besides Easter Island, Sala y Gómez is the youngest mountain in the chain, presumed to have been formed by a hotspot progressing gradually westward from about 27Ma with the Nazca chain, to 2Ma at Easter Island.^[7]

[edit] Flora

Together with Easter Island, Sala y Gómez forms a distinct ecoregion, called the Rapa Nui subtropical broadleaf forests. The island itself, however, is not forested, but largely barren, and is home to only four species of terrestrial plants. Among these is Asplenium (or "Spleenwort", a type of fern), which grows only in protected areas at higher elevations.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Cultural references

German bard Adalbert von Chamisso wrote a poem about the island, based on his reflections upon visiting the island in 1816.^[8]

[edit] See also

• San Félix y San Ambrosio
• Juan Fernández

[edit] Notes

1. ^  Wetlands.org information about the designation of SyG as a wildlife refuge
2. ^  Te Rapa Nui (The Gazette of Easter Island) Vol. 4 No. 8, Summer/Fall 1999
3. ^  The Islands from notes on the Cordell Expeditions. Aug. 1995
4. ^  Revista Española del Pacífico No. 2, 1992. From the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes.
5. ^  Chilian history page outlining history of Rapa Nui province
6. ^  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.
7. ^  Priliminary Multibeam Mapping and Dredging Results along the Nazca Ridge and Easter/Salas y Gomez Chain from the 2002 Ocean Sciences Meeting
8. ^  Address by Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia Siim Kallas (as HTML) from a Eurovision website.

[edit] 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)