A Brief History of Tuvalu
The
Islands
The formation of coral islands was a
topic of considerable scientific argument in the 19th century. The question that
particularly bothered scientists was this: since corals grow only at shallow
depths in the sea meters), how is it that coral rock, formed from their remains,
often extends for hundreds of meters beneath the sea?
In 1842 the famous scientist Charles
Darwin, who visited the Pacific in 1835-6, put forward the theory that coral
islands had been built on slowly subsiding volcanic rocks. As the volcanic
foundation sank, it carried the dead coral down to greater depths. Meanwhile,
new deposits of coral were being added to the top of the pile, near the surface,
so that the upward growth of the coral kept pace with the subsidence. At some
later date another volcanic movement occurred, and pushed some of the coral up
to form islands. Thus it was, said
Darwin
that a solid mass of coral rock could be found above the surface of the sea,
and extend from there, through the waters in which it had been formed down to
depths at which the coral had never lived.
After many years of discussion on the
structures of atolls, the Royal Society of London decided to bore down into the
coral and obtain a sample of it from far beneath the surface to see if these
samples would contain traces of shallow water organisms. In 1896 an expedition
was sent to
Tuvalu
(
Funafuti
) which managed to bore to a depth of 33 meters. In 1897 another party of
scientists led by Professor Edgeworth David of the
University
of
Sydney
carried the boring to a depth of 200 meters while the following year a third
group managed to obtain a sample from a depth of 340 meters. All the samples
obtained were found to contain traces of shallow water organisms, but the
drilling was never able to reach the volcanic base of
Funafuti
. Another attempt was made in 1911, which was also unsuccessful. The boreholes
can still be seen to this day, at the site now called David's Drill.
Mrs. David, the wife of Professor
Edgeworth David wrote a book describing her experiences in
Funafuti
. It was published in 1899 and called
Funafuti
, Or Three Months on a Coral Island.
