The World’s Oldest Tsunami Victim at the Gateway to the Pacific—and Beyond

Tsunami ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 37-48
Author(s):  
James Goff ◽  
Walter Dudley

The 1998 Papua New Guinea tsunami was a significant puzzle for scientists who finally cracked the cause, but it also marks the most recent event of many that can be dated back to at least 6,000 years ago where the skull of the oldest tsunami victim in the world was found. Papua New Guinea was also the starting point for the most remarkable navigational feat in the world, with Polynesians moving rapidly east into the Pacific Ocean, their settlement of the region being punctuated by hiatuses caused by catastrophic tsunamis approximately 3,000, 2,000, and 600 years ago. It was on isolated Pacific islands that humans first came into contact with the deadly Pacific Ring of Fire. Settlement abandonment, mass graves, and cultural collapse mark their progress.

Antiquity ◽  
1936 ◽  
Vol 10 (37) ◽  
pp. 54-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henri Lavachery

Few places in the world have given rise to more fantastic speculation than this volcanic island, 70 square miles in area, lying in the Pacific Ocean, lat. 27° 10′ s., long. 109° 20′ w. Actually the so-called ‘mysteries of Easter Island’, or rather the explanations which have been offered, are not the work of trained men of science. It is natural that the huge statues, standing erect as they do in a naked landscape against a background of black and yellow, should have appealed to the poetical imagination. But those who wish to face with candour the problems presented by certain parts of the world may well be annoyed when the poets’ lyrical love of mystery becomes the starting-point of speculation. The best students of Easter Island have always told us that it was Polynesian and could only be explained by Polynesia. The evidence that we have now obtained is merely an addition to what was already a formidable pile. Nevertheless we expect that before long others will come forward again with tales of a lost continent of Lemuria, submerged beneath the waters of the Pacific; and that Easter Island is one of its peaks, peopled with Lemurian idols!


Antiquity ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 68 (260) ◽  
pp. 604-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Pavlides ◽  
Chris Gosden

The growing story of early settlement in the northwest Pacific islands is moving from coastal sites into the rainforest. Evidence of Pleistocene cultural layers have been discovered in open-site excavations at Yombon, an area containing shifting hamlets, in West New Britain's interior tropical rainforest. These sites, the oldest in New Britain, may presently stand as the oldest open sites discovered in rainforest anywhere in the world.


1928 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-64
Author(s):  
JOHN R. BAKER

(1) In certain islands of the New Hebrides (in the Pacific Ocean) a considerable proportion of the pigs are intersexual. Nowhere in the world are intersexual mammals so abundant. (2) These intersexes differ from the rare intersexes of European pigs in the invariable absence of any rudiment of uterus or vagina. (3) A tendency to intersexuality is inherited. (4) The intersexes are interpreted as genetic males in which the testicular hormone has been produced too late in development.


1994 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. Sparks ◽  
H. Perndt ◽  
K. Agiomea ◽  
J. Fa'Arondo

Results were kept on 43 spinal anaesthetics performed for caesarean section in the Solomon Islands, a developing tropical country in the Pacific Ocean. A 25-gauge Quincke needle was used and either 2.5 ml of heavy bupivacaine 0.5% or 2.0-2.5 ml of plain bupivacaine 0.5% were injected. Hypotension down to 85 mmHg occurred in four patients and there were no spinal headaches. Five patients had to be given a general anaesthetic. We recommend this technique to other doctors working in the Pacific Islands.


REINWARDTIA ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Ruth Kiew

KIEW, R. 2020. Towards a Flora of New Guinea: Oleaceae. Part 1. Jasminum, Ligustrum, Myxopyrum and Olea. Reinwardtia 19(1): 1‒25. ‒‒ Oleaceae in New Guinea is represented by five genera and about 32 species, namely Chionanthus (about 16 species), Jasminum (10 species), Ligustrum (3 species), Myxopyrum (2 species) and Olea (1 species). A key to genera as well as descriptions of and keys to species of Jasminum, Ligustrum, Myxopyrum and Olea are provided. Of the three Ligustrum species, L. glomeratum is widespread throughout Malesia, L. novoguineense is endemic and L. parvifolium Kiew is a new endemic species. Six species of Jasminum are endemic (J. domatiigerum, J. gilgianum, J. magnificum, J. papuasicum, J. pipolyi and J. rupestre). Jasminum turneri just reaches the northern tip of Australia; of the two species from the Pacific Islands J. simplicifolium subsp. australiense just reaches SE Papua New Guinea and J. didymum, a coastal species, reaches into Malesia as far north as E Java; J. elongatum is widespread from Asia to Australia. Neither Myxopyrum species is endemic: M. nervosum subsp. nervosum extends from Peninsular Malaysia to Indonesian New Guinea, and M. ovatum from the Philippines to the Admiralty Islands. The sole species of Olea, O. paniculata, stretches from Java to Australia and New Caledonia. 


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julissa Rojas-Sandoval

Abstract Ipomoea quamoclit is a fast-growing vine, native to Mexico and Central America, and widely cultivated and introduced to many countries as an ornamental for its attractive foliage and bright flowers. It has escaped from cultivation to become naturalized and invasive in a variety of habitats, where it competes with native vine species and behaves as an agricultural weed. It is listed as invasive in Australia, Papua New Guinea, India, the United States, Brazil, the Galapagos Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Maldives, the Seychelles and many islands in the Pacific Ocean.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 183
Author(s):  
Domidoyo Marthinus

Nusantara adalah suatu wilayah kepulauan yang berada di antara dua benua, Asia dan Australia, sebagai benua yang berada dalam dua samudera raya yang di kenal sebagai samudera India dan samudera Pasifik. Kepulauan ini memotong ekuator dari 95 derajat sampai 141 derajat bujur timur. Penduduk pulau ini menarik perhatian berbagai masyarakat dari penjuru dunia, karena tanah subur dengan  limpahan rempah-rempah dan corak masyarakat yang akomodatif dengankecenderunganfriendly dengan kehadiran tamu. Hal ini memicu para pedagang untuk berniaga dan sekaligus bersyiar atau berdakwah. Orang India yang beragama Hindu dan Buddha menjadi orang pertama yang berlabuh untuk berdagang dan sekaligus memperkenalkanagama yang di anut. Hal ini menjadikan identitas sangat bagus untuk diperbincangkan. Sebagai pendatang dantamu di Nusantara, orang-orang India membawa segala identitas termasuk budaya dan agama. Paper ini menjelaskan cara agama dari India hidup dan besar di tengah masyarakat.[The Nusantara is an archipelago located between two continents, Asia and Australia, as a continent located in two major oceans known as the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. These islands intersect the equator from 95 degrees to 141 degrees east longitude. The inhabitants of the island attract the attention of various people from all over the world because the land is fertile with an abundance of spices and an accommodating community style with a friendly inclination to the presence of guests. It triggered the traders to trade and simultaneously spread or preach. Indians who were Hindus and Buddhists were the first to anchor to trade and at the same time introduce the religion adherence embraced. It makes identity important to talk about. As guests and guests in the archipelago, Indians carry all identities, including culture and religion. This paper explains the way religions from India live and grow in society.]


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