{"id":27888,"date":"2025-05-15T20:19:59","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T20:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27888"},"modified":"2025-05-15T21:24:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T21:24:27","slug":"how-a-two-story-boulder-ended-up-on-a-120-foot-high-cliff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27888","title":{"rendered":"How a Two-Story Boulder Ended Up on a 120-Foot-High Cliff"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The rock called Maka Lahi is important in the mythology of the people of Tonga, and scientists have worked out part of its origin story.<\/p>\n

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Just a stone\u2019s throw from the ocean, indeed.<\/p>\n

Small family farms dot the southern coast of Tongatapu, the largest island of Tonga in the South Pacific. But something lies amid the cassava and banana plants that doesn\u2019t belong: a staggeringly large, off-white boulder.<\/p>\n

The rock, which features prominently in Tongan mythology, was recently scrutinized by scientists. New results suggest that the object was transported inland thousands of years ago when tsunami waves breached a 120-foot cliff. That event might have been set in motion by an earthquake in the nearby Tonga-Kermadec Trench, the team reported last month in the journal Marine Geology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Seemingly out-of-place boulders are found in coastal regions around the world. From Japan to the Bahamas, scientists have spotted hulking rocks that simply don\u2019t seem to fit their surroundings. Researchers generally believe that such boulders were transported by moving water, and the powerful waves of tsunamis are often invoked as culprits.<\/p>\n

Last July, researchers traveled to Tongatapu to analyze several coastal boulders. On the last day of their planned fieldwork, the team received an unexpected tip from a group of Tongan farmers: A boulder, far larger than the ones the researchers were studying, lay nearby on farmland belonging to the Teisina family.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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That boulder turned out to be a behemoth \u2014 roughly the size of a two-story house. \u201cIt was unreal,\u201d said Martin K\u00f6hler, a geoscientist at the University of Queensland in Australia, who led the research. The rock, made of limestone, was also nearly completely camouflaged by vegetation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked like a hill,\u201d said Mafoa Penisoni, a seismologist at Tonga Geological Services in Nuku\u2019alofa, the country\u2019s capital, who accompanied the researchers.<\/p>\n

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The rock called Maka Lahi is important in the mythology of the people of Tonga, and scientists have worked out part of its origin story.Just a stone\u2019s throw from the ocean, indeed.Small family farms dot the southern coast of Tongatapu, the largest island of Tonga in the South Pacific. But something lies amid the cassava and banana plants that doesn\u2019t belong: a staggeringly large, off-white boulder.The rock, which features prominently in Tongan mythology, was recently scrutinized by scientists. New results suggest that the object was transported inland thousands of years ago when tsunami waves breached a 120-foot cliff. That event might have been set in motion by an earthquake in the nearby Tonga-Kermadec Trench, the team reported last month in the journal Marine Geology.Seemingly out-of-place boulders are found in coastal regions around the world. From Japan to the Bahamas, scientists have spotted hulking rocks that simply don\u2019t seem to fit their surroundings. Researchers generally believe that such boulders were transported by moving water, and the powerful waves of tsunamis are often invoked as culprits.Last July, researchers traveled to Tongatapu to analyze several coastal boulders. On the last day of their planned fieldwork, the team received an unexpected tip from a group of Tongan farmers: A boulder, far larger than the ones the researchers were studying, lay nearby on farmland belonging to the Teisina family.That boulder turned out to be a behemoth \u2014 roughly the size of a two-story house. \u201cIt was unreal,\u201d said Martin K\u00f6hler, a geoscientist at the University of Queensland in Australia, who led the research. The rock, made of limestone, was also nearly completely camouflaged by vegetation.\u201cIt looked like a hill,\u201d said Mafoa Penisoni, a seismologist at Tonga Geological Services in Nuku\u2019alofa, the country\u2019s capital, who accompanied the researchers.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27890,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27888"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27891,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27888\/revisions\/27891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}