POSTCARDS FROM OCEANIA 3

The images on this Web site cover a span of over 200 years

and give an indication of the depth and diversity of Oceanic life during this time.

Easter Island Otuiti Crater - 1869.

Kiribati dancers.

Fiji kava drinking.

Tahiti dancers.

Early view of Maori Chief, New Zealand, 1908.

Maeva Hotel, Tahiti -1969.

Tuvalu stamps.

An early postcard from Suva, Fiji.

A very early carved bowl from Melanesia.

Republic of Nauru Postcard.

Early image from Ocean Island (Banaba).

Papua New Guinea (Dani) armour jacket.

Tuamotu Archipelago Engraving, 1890.

......The Tuamotus, known in sailing lore as the "Dangerous Archipelago" due to the
islands' minimal height above sea level, are part of French Polynesia. For the most
part, the Tuamotus are sparsely populated. This is due to the fact that the islands
barely rise above the sea, and thus can only support small communities of people.
Atoll Pass Atolls are the remains of steep, volcanic islands after hundreds of years
of erosion and subsiding into the ocean floor. The Tuamotus were once cone-shaped
peaks pushed up by volcanic activity. Throughout the ages, erosion and compacting of
the rock wore away the volcanic peaks. At the same time, coral reefs built up around
their bases. The Tuamotus are the result; atolls, or rings of low islets called
"motus" underlain by reef and encircling a central lagoon where the volcanic peak once
was. Passes in the reef separate the motus; passes were created by freshwater rivers
running down the former mountains' slopes into the sea, inhibiting reef growth. Some
passes are deep, and others are shallow. Some, like the shallow pass pictured above,
have water in them all the time, and some empty and fill with the tides.

Oceania Postcards and Picture Galleries

 

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 (E-mail: jane@janeresture.com -- Rev. 11th October 2002)