7,000 Years Ago, a 1,200-Ton Boulder Was Dropped on a Pacific Island -- Now Scientists Know How It Got There [Maka Lahi boulder, tsunami]

The Debrief ^ | June 4, 2025 | Micah Hanks

[SunkenCiv]

Martin Köhler, a PhD candidate with the University of Queensland's School of the Environment, said the odd discovery was made while he and other researchers were exploring the southern side of the island of Tongatapu.

"It was late in the day, and we were talking to some farmers when they directed us to this boulder," ...

Köhler says that the massive boulder's location much further inland beyond the team's field work area means that it must have been transported there by some tremendous force...

When the first erratics were identified in the 18th century, they were initially considered a major paradox. However, it was eventually determined that glacial movement in Earth's past had been a possible mechanism for the transport of these peculiar stones, a revelation that helped reveal evidence of an ice age prior to the Holocene...

"We made a 3D model and then went back to the coast and found the spot the boulder could have come from, on a cliff over 30 metres above the sea level," Köhler explained in a press release announcing the discovery...

In the case of the stone Köhler located, which has been dubbed the Maka Lahi boulder, the tsunami in question must have moved the stone more than 200 meters inland when it occurred, a remarkable distance for an object of this boulder's size.

Based on the stone's size and position, Köhler and his colleagues have determined that moving the boulder to its current position would have required 50-meter-high waves, which lasted close to a minute and a half...

The discovery aligns with Tonga's history of tsunami activity, often resulting from earthquakes and volcanic activity around the Tofua Ridge and Tonga Trench.

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TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: catastrophism; earthquakes; makalahi; makalahiboulder; tofuaridge; tonga; tongatapu; tongatrench; tsunami; volcanoes

[SunkenCiv]

Tonga's Maka Lahi boulder, which was deposited at its current location 7000 years ago by a tsunami.

Credit: Martin Köhler, et al, University of Queensland

[Red Badger]

In before it was Aliens guy....................

[SunkenCiv]

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[Paladin2]

Rocks float?

[SunkenCiv]

You’ve never heard of Guam? ;^)

[SpaceBar]

That’s a part of the world where every now and then an island is atomized.

[Leaning Right]

Interesting article. But as Red Badger alluded to, it would have been way more interesting had aliens moved that big rock.

Oh, wait. Maybe they did.

[Red Badger]

Ancient Egyptians did it. They were just lost..............

[piasa]

Some volcanic ones do...

But anything can be pushed by the force of a tsunami the same way ordinary floodwaters smash into and move walls, gravel, boulders, heavy equipment, bridges, and other things that don’t necessarily float.

[fidelis]

"In before it was Aliens guy...................."

[Getready]

Boulderdash!
Clickbait.

[Candor7]

50 meter high wave:

[dayglored]

> Rocks float?

Very small ones. (Monty Python reference.)

[FreedomNotSafety]

Bolders being bolders.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/2013-12-13-huge-boulder-crushes-house-kills-two-utah-landslide.html

[frank ballenger]

Earlier explanation was Babe the Blue Ox said to Paul Bunyan:
“Butterfingers.”

[Hieronymus]

Well played.

Now do Aliens way more or less than a duck?

[Colt1851Navy]

There is a Boulder in Colorado that fell from outer space, it had clingons that are the biggest problem though.

[SunkenCiv]

[singing] everybody’s gone surfin’...

[SunkenCiv]

Well, used to be. :^)