# Mehetiʻa

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**Mehetia** or **Meetia** is a [volcanic](/source/Volcano) [island](/source/Volcanic_island) in the [Windward Islands](/source/Windward_Islands_(Society_Islands)), in the east of the [Society Islands](/source/Society_Islands) in [French Polynesia](/source/French_Polynesia). It is a very young active [stratovolcano](/source/Stratovolcano) 110 kilometres (68 mi) east of the Taiarapu Peninsula of [Tahiti](/source/Tahiti). It belongs to the [Teahitia](/source/Teahitia)-Mehetia [hotspot](/source/Hotspot_(geology)).[1]

The island has an area of 2.3 square kilometres (0.89 sq mi) and its highest point is 435 metres (1,427 ft). The peak is a well-defined [volcanic crater](/source/Volcanic_crater). In 1981 the island was the centre of earthquakes.[2][3]

## History

Tahitian oral tradition holds that navigators stopped at Mehitia, which was regarded as sacred, on their long voyage to New Zealand.[4] This oral history correlates with geological evidence found in southern [New Zealand](/source/New_Zealand) which can be traced back to Mehitia.[5]

The early Polynesian voyagers commonly gave Polynesian ancestral names and symbolism to new places.[6] The high point of Mehetia is Mount Hiurai (Hi’ura’i/Hikurangi)[7] The name [Hikurangi](/source/Mount_Hikurangi_(Gisborne_District)) in Aotearoa / New Zealand probably came from Mehetia[8] and the name Hi’ura’i probably has its origin in Siulagi (Siulangi) in Tau, Samoa.[9]

The first European sighting was by the Spanish expedition of [Pedro Fernández de Quirós](/source/Pedro_Fern%C3%A1ndez_de_Quir%C3%B3s) on 9 February 1606, that charted it as *Decena* (ten in Spanish).[10] Later on it was sighted by [Samuel Wallis](/source/Samuel_Wallis) in HMS Dolphin 1767 and [Louis Antoine de Bougainville](/source/Louis_Antoine_de_Bougainville) in 1768.[11] It was also sighted by Spanish navigator [Domingo de Boenechea](/source/Domingo_de_Boenechea) on November 6, 1772, on ship *Aguila*.[11]: 241 He named this island *San Cristóbal*.

## Administration

Mehetia is administratively part of the [commune](/source/Commune_in_France) (municipality) of [Taiarapu-Est](/source/Taiarapu-Est) and of its easternmost [commune associée](/source/Commune_associ%C3%A9e) Tautira. The island is uninhabited and does not have much vegetation but has a small coral reef on the underwater slopes.

## See also

- [List of volcanoes in French Polynesia](/source/List_of_volcanoes_in_French_Polynesia)

## References

1. Cheminee, J.L.; Hekinian, R.; Talandier, Jacques; Albarède, Francis; Devey, Colin; Francheteau, J.; Lancelot, Y. (March 1989). "Geology of an active hot spot: Teahitia-Mehetia region in the South Central Pacific". *Marine Geophysical Research*. **11** (1): 27–50. [Bibcode:1989MarGR..11...27C](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1989MarGR..11...27C). [doi:10.1007/BF00286246](https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00286246). [S2CID 129178596](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:129178596)

1. Binard, N.; Maury, R. C.; Guille, G.; Talandier, J.; Gillot, P.Y.; Cotten, J. (March 1993). "Mehetia Island, South Pacific: geology and petrology of the emerged part of the Society hot spot". *Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research*. **55** (3–4): 239–260. [Bibcode:1993JVGR...55..239B](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1993JVGR...55..239B). [doi:10.1016/0377-0273(93)90040-X](https://doi.org/10.1016/0377-0273(93)90040-X)

1. Talandier, Jacques (1984). ["The volcanoseismic swarms of 1981–1983 in the Tahiti-Mehetia Area, French Polynesia"](https://www.earth.northwestern.edu/people/emile/PDF/EAO042.pdf). *Journal of Geophysical Research*. **89** (B13): 11216–11234. [Bibcode:1984JGR....8911216T](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1984JGR....8911216T). [doi:10.1029/JB089iB13p11216](https://doi.org/10.1029/JB089iB13p11216). Retrieved 8 October 2022.

1. ["Scoria blocks reinforces early Polynesian links to Southland"](https://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/111758654/scoria-blocks-reinforces-early-polynesian-links-to-southland). *[The Southland Times](/source/The_Southland_Times)*. [Stuff](/source/Stuff_(website)). 3 April 2019. Retrieved 15 April 2019.

1. ["Rock find in New Zealand rewrites story of Polynesian voyage"](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12219295) (in en-NZ). *[The New Zealand Herald](/source/The_New_Zealand_Herald)*. 2019-04-06. [ISSN 1170-0777](https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1170-0777). Retrieved 2020-08-24.

1. ["Ancestral Naming of Places"](https://teara.govt.nz/en/tapa-whenua-naming-places/page-1),

1. ["Mount Hiurai (Hi’ura’i/Hikurangi)"](http://ahnz.anarkiwi.co.nz/2000-mt-hikurangi/)

1. ["Mount Hiurai (Hi’ura’i/Hikurangi)"](http://ahnz.anarkiwi.co.nz/2000-mt-hikurangi/)

1. ["Siulagi(Siulangi)in Tau"](http://www.whakapapaclub.nz/forum/iwi-hapu-and-marae-whakapapa-club-forum-owc/ngati-porou-whakapapa-1301/paged/11/l)

1. Corney, Bolton Granvill *The quest and occupation of Tahiti by emissaries of Spain during the years 1772-1776*, London, 1913, Vol I, p.XXX

1. Salmond, Anne (2010). [*Aphrodite's Island*](https://archive.org/details/aphroditesisland00salm/page/39). Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. [39,45,93](https://archive.org/details/aphroditesisland00salm/page/39). ISBN 9780520261143.

## External links

- [Mehetia in Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program database](http://www.volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=333040)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Mehetiʻa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meheti%CA%BBa) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meheti%CA%BBa?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.