Omo'a

Last updated
Omo'a
Town
Marquesas Islands location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Omo'a
Location in the Marquesas Islands
Coordinates: 10°30′44″S138°40′58″W / 10.51222°S 138.68278°W / -10.51222; -138.68278 Coordinates: 10°30′44″S138°40′58″W / 10.51222°S 138.68278°W / -10.51222; -138.68278
Country Flag of France.svg  France
Overseas collectivityFlag of French Polynesia.svg  French Polynesia
TerritoryFlag of Marquesas Islands.svg  Marquesas Islands
Island Fatu Hiva
Population (2002)
  Total 247

Omo‘a (or Omoa) is the name of a small town and valley at the head of a bay by the same name, on Fatu Hiva.

Bay A recessed, coastal body of water connected to an ocean or lake

A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a type of smaller bay with a circular inlet and narrow entrance. A fjord is a particularly steep bay shaped by glacial activity.

The bay of Omo‘a is the southernmost bay on the western coast of Fatu Hiva, and provides a good anchorage. The village of Omo‘a was home to 247 inhabitants at the 2002 census. The village is home to the island's only Protestant church. The valley of Omo‘a is well-watered, and curves in a half-moon shape, first to the southeast, and then to the northeast, terminating at the island's central plateau. This is where Thor Heyerdahl and his wife came ashore in 1937, an experience recorded in his book Fatu Hiva .

Plateau An area of a highland, usually of relatively flat terrain

In geology and physical geography, a plateau, also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain, that is raised significantly above the surrounding area, often with one or more sides with steep slopes. Plateaus can be formed by a number of processes, including upwelling of volcanic magma, extrusion of lava, and erosion by water and glaciers. Plateaus are classified according to their surrounding environment as intermontane, piedmont, or continental.

Thor Heyerdahl Norwegian anthropologist and adventurer

Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany, and geography. He became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. The expedition was designed to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating contacts between separate cultures. This was linked to a diffusionist model of cultural development. Heyerdahl subsequently made other voyages designed to demonstrate the possibility of contact between widely separated ancient people, notably the Ra II expedition of 1970, when he sailed from the west coast of Africa to Barbados in a papyrus reed boat. He was appointed a government scholar in 1984.

<i>Fatu Hiva</i> (book) book by Thor Heyerdahl

Fatu-Hiva - Back to Nature is a book published in 1974 by archaeologist and explorer Thor Heyerdahl detailing his experiences and reflections during a one-and-a-half-year stay on the Marquesan island of Fatu Hiva in 1937-38. The book was based on Heyerdahl's original report Paa Jakt efter Paradiset, which was published in Norway in 1938, but because of the outbreak of World War II was never translated and rather forgotten.


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Fatu-liva

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