Mota Lava or Motalava is an island of the

Banks group The Banks Group Limited is a family owned business headquartered in Durham, but working across Scotland and the North of England, established in 1976. Banks develops and operates in a variety of business areas including property development, ren ...

, in the north of

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

. It forms a single coral system with the small island of Ra. The 2009 census figures give a population of 1,640 inhabitants (Mota Lava + Ra), which amounts to a population density of 67 people per km².

Geography

Geography and geology

With an area of 24 km² (9.3 sq mi), Mota Lava is the fourth largest island in the Banks Islands, after

Gaua Gaua (formerly known as ''Santa Maria Island'') is the largest and second most populous of the Banks Islands in Torba Province in northern Vanuatu. It covers . Geography Gaua is subject to frequent earthquakes and cyclones. The climate is ...

Vanua Lava Vanua Lava is the second largest of the Banks Islands in Torba Province, Vanuatu, after slightly larger Gaua. It is located about 120 km north-northeast of Espiritu Santo and north of Gaua. Name The name ''Vanua Lava'' comes from the Mot ...

and

Ureparapara Ureparapara (also known as ''Parapara'' for short; once known as ''Bligh Island'') is the third largest island in the Banks group of northern Vanuatu, after Gaua and Vanua Lava. The climate on the island is humid tropical. The average annual r ...

. It is the highest () of the eastern chain of islands, as well as the largest. Ra, a small island of , is located off the southern coast of Mota Lava. It is attached to it by high corals that one can wade through at low tide. The climate on Mota Lava is humid tropical. The average annual rainfall exceeds 4000 mm. The island is subject to frequent earthquakes and cyclones. The island is served by

Mota Lava Airport Mota Lava Airport is an airport located on the island of Mota Lava, one of the Banks Islands in the Torba province in Vanuatu. Also known as ''Valua Airport'', it is located on the eastern end of Motalava island, near the village of Aplow (for ...

Geology

Mota Lava is composed of at least five

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a typically conical volcano built up by many alternating layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with ...

es. 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 wide crater.

Geochemical Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the ...

analysis shows that the island's lava has a similar composition to that from nearby Mota and

, 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.

Name and language

In early 19th-century texts and maps, Mota Lava was called ''Saddle Island'', after the distinctive saddle-shaped profile it presents when seen from a boat offshore. The inhabitants of Mota Lava call the island Mwotlap, locally spelled ''M̄otlap'' (). The language spoken by the inhabitants of Motalava is also called

Mwotlap Mwotlap (pronounced ; formerly known as ''Motlav'') is an Oceanic language spoken by about 2,100 people in Vanuatu. The majority of speakers are found on the island of Motalava in the Banks Islands, with smaller communities in the islands of ...

. It is the most widely spoken language in the

Banks Islands The Banks Islands (in Bislama ''Bankis'') are a group of islands in northern Vanuatu. Together with the Torres Islands to their northwest, they make up the northernmost province of Torba Province, Torba. The island group lies about north of Maew ...

, with about 2,100 speakers. The recently extinct

Volow language Volow (formerly known as ''Valuwa'' or ''Valuga'') is an Oceanic language variety that used to be spoken in the area of Aplow, in the eastern part of the island of Motalava, Vanuatu. Name The name ''Volow'' is originally a placename: it corr ...

also used to be spoken on Mota Lava. An early attempt to transcribe the native name, both for the island and the language, yielded a form ''Motlav''. The name ''M̄ota Lava'' (or in simple spelling, ''Motalava'') caught on after it started being used by 19th-century missionaries to the island. They borrowed that name from the language spoken on neighbouring Mota. Both the Mota and Mwotlap names of the island descend from a protoform *''mʷota laβa'' in Proto-Torres-Banks, literally "large Mota". A process of vowel deletion, regular in Mwotlap, explains how * was shortened to .

History

Like the rest of Vanuatu, Motalava was first settled around the by

Austronesian Austronesian may refer to: *The Austronesian languages *The historical Austronesian peoples The Austronesian people, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples who have settled in Taiwan, maritime Sout ...

navigators belonging to the

Lapita culture The Lapita culture is the name given to a Neolithic Austronesian peoples, Austronesian people and their distinct material culture, who settled Island Melanesia via a seaborne migration at around 1600 to 500 BCE. The Lapita people are believed t ...

. Archaeologists have found ancient

obsidian Obsidian ( ) is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Produced from felsic lava, obsidian is rich in the lighter element ...

in Mota Lava,

and

, and

Lapita The Lapita culture is the name given to a Neolithic Austronesian people and their distinct material culture, who settled Island Melanesia via a seaborne migration at around 1600 to 500 BCE. The Lapita people are believed to have originated fro ...

pottery have been found in the island. The island was first sighted by Europeans during the Spanish expedition of

Pedro Fernández de Quirós Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for '' Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meani ...

, from 25 to 29 April 1606. The island’s name was then charted as ''Lágrimas de San Pedro'' (“St. Peter's Tears”, in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

).Kelly, Celsus, O.F.M. ''La Austrialia del Espíritu Santo. The Journal of Fray Martín de Munilla O.F.M. and other documents relating to the Voyage of Pedro Fernández de Quirós to the South Sea (1605-1606) and the Franciscan Missionary Plan (1617-1627)'' Cambridge, 1966, p.39, 62.

Notes and references

Notes

References

* * *

External links

An introduction to the culture of Mota Lava and its surroundings
– featuring photos, maps, access to linguistic documents and traditional stories (site of the linguist

Alexandre François Alexandre François is a French linguist specialising in the description and study of the indigenous languages of Melanesia. He belongs t''Lattice'' a research centre of the CNRS and dedicated to linguistics. Research Language description and ...

) **
A Journey to Motalava
(''Promenade ethnolinguistique à Motalava'') {{Authority control Islands of Vanuatu Volcanoes of Vanuatu Torba Province Banks Islands