Case file · Folklore / legend
Kuwae, the lost land of Tongoa
Oral tradition on Tongoa tells of Kuwae, a land destroyed by a huge eruption, and of Ti Tongoa Liseiriki, a youth who escaped; scientists once linked it to a great eruption of about 1452.
1452 CE · -16.83, 168.54 · status: disputed
The account
Radiocarbon dates from Tongoa cluster around 1410–1450, and an Antarctic sulfate spike was first dated to 1452 and later 1458. A caldera between Tongoa and Epi was identified in 1994.
The sceptical view
Later studies argue the local eruption was smaller and that the 1458 ice-core signal came from elsewhere; the source of that global event remains unknown.
Connections in the atlas
- Ti Tongoa Liseiriki and the lost land of Kuwae