Niuafo'ou

Niuafoʻou (volcano)
Niuafo'ou from the International Space Station, 2005-03-19
Highest point
Elevation	260 m (850 ft)
Coordinates	15°36′S 175°38′W / 15.60°S 175.63°W / -15.60; -175.63
Geography
Location	Tonga, Oceania
Geology
Mountain type	Shield volcano
Last eruption	March 1985

Niuafoʻou (meaning: many new coconuts) is the most northerly island in the kingdom of Tonga. It is a volcanic rim island of 15 km² and with a population of 650 in 2006.

The island is located in the southern Pacific Ocean between Fiji and Samoa, 574 km north of Tongatapu island group and 337 kilometers northwest of Vavaʻu. It is still an active volcano.

Other names for the island are Good Hope island and Tin Can island. The latter name originated from the fact that, since the island has neither a natural harbor nor a wharf, mail was delivered and picked up by strong swimmers who would retrieve packages, "sealed up in a biscuit tin" and thrown overboard from passing ships. Established in the nineteenth century, Tin Can Mail was developed by a trader named Walter George Quensell, who festooned the mail with many colourful cachets that have become a collectors' item. The Tongan government took over this tradition with special Niuafoʻou stamps since 1983.

Niuafoʻou is a volcano located on an underwater ridge 190 kilometres (120 mi) west of the line of all the other volcanoes of Tonga. The island contains a steep-sided caldera; the rim is over 120 metres (390 ft) high, rising to a height of 250 metres (820 ft) at Mokotu. The coastline is rocky and steep with only a few stony black sand beaches. The only landing place on the island is the end of a lava flow at Futu, in the west. All the villages are in the north and east. Public places—like the post office, telecommunications station and airport (Niuatoputapu Airport)—are in Angahā in the north, while a high school is located in Muʻa.

The island ring encloses two lakes. The larger, Vai Lahi, is a crater lake 23 metres above sea level, 4 kilometres wide, and 84 metres deep. The lake contains three islands and a submerged island that appears when the water level drops. Vai Lahi is separated from the smaller Vai Siʻi (or Vai Mataʻaho) by a desolate landscape of sand hills. The island is covered by forest on the inner walls of the crater lake, and on the island's eastern and western slopes.