Mota Lava

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Mota Lava, viewed from space.
Mota Lava, viewed from space.

Mota Lava or Motalava (coordinates 13.7° S 167.65° E) is the third-largest island in the Banks Islands of Vanuatu. It is the largest and highest (411 m) of the eastern chain of islands. Off its southern coast, attached by high corals that one can wade through at low tide, is the tiny islet of Ra.

There is an airport on the island (IATA code: MTV).

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[edit] Name and language

In early texts and maps of the XIXth century, the island of Mota Lava was designated as Saddle Island, due to the island's distinctive profile seen from a boat.

The habit of designating the island as Mota Lava was then borrowed by XIXth-century missionaries from the neighbouring language Mota. The inhabitants of Mota Lava call their own island Mwotlap [ŋ͡mʷɔtˈlap].

Mwotlap also designates the language spoken by the inhabitants of Mota Lava. It is the most widely spoken of the languages in the Banks Islands, with about 1,800 speakers.

[edit] Geology

Mota Lava is composed of at least five basaltic stratovolcanoes. Two of the cones, Vetman and Tuntog, are well-preserved. Vetman is a pyroclastic cone in the centre of the island with a breached summit crater. At the southwest end of the island, Tuntog is a composite cone with a 500 metre wide crater.

Geochemical analysis shows that the island's lava has a similar composition to that from nearby Mota and Ureparapara, as well as lava from the south of the country, but differs from material erupted in central Vanuatu. The latter region has been affected by the subduction of a submerged, extinct island arc complex called the D'Entrecasteaux Zone.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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