Evidence is discussed that the wide-spread fires ca. 800 years ago which denuded the southern provinces of the South Island of New Zealand of the extensive forests present at that time were due to the entry of a large bolide into the atmosphere, the conflagration being ignited by the intense heat generated as this extraterrestrial projectile ablated/detonated in a similar manner to that of the Tunguska object of 1908. These fires led to the extinction of the giant terrestrial bird known as the Moa, and the end of the archaic epoch of Maori history known as the Moa Hunter period. This interpretation is well attested to in Maori myth and legend

Snow, Peter

Steel, Duncan

English

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Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 1991, pp. 569-572
Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, 1992 -_/_ _ - C:_0 569
93f.1 9e4
THE TAPANUI REGION OF NEW ZEALAND :
SITE OF A 'TUNGUSKA' AROUND 800 YEARS AGO?
Ix_ f Y
Duncan Steel, Anglo-Australian Observatory, Coonabarabran, NSW 2357, Australia; and
Peter Snow, Suffolk Street, Tapanui, Otago, New Zealand.
_urmnary
We discuss the evidence that the wide-spread fires ca. 800 years ago which denuded the southern
provinces of the South Island of New Zealand of the extensive forests present at that time were due
to the entry of a large bolide into the atmosphere, the conflagration being ignited by the intense
heat generated as this extraterrestrial projectile ablated/detonated in a similar manner to that of
the Tunguska object of 1908. These fires led to the extinction of the giant terrestrial bird known
as the Moa, and the end of the archaic epoch of Maori history known as the Moa Hunter period.
This interpretation is well attested to in Maori myth and legend. . :
Introduction
The fact that the Earth is struck quite frequently by astronomical objects of substantial size
is now well-established (e.g. Shoemaker, 1983). The last time that a large body was observed
to intrude into the terrestrial environment was when a _1012g object entered the atmosphere
over the Tunguska region of Siberia in 1908, this apparently having been a part of the Taurid
Complex (Kres_.k 1978; Steel et al., 1991), whilst the expected 'annum event' (a ,,,20 kilotonne
TNT-equivalent explosion) corresponds to an incoming mass of order 5 x 10 s g (Table 2 of Ceplecha,
1992). The frequency of Earth-encounters with objects of such a size and energy as the Tunguska
event progenitor (assuming that such events occur stochastically, which would not be the case if such
objects are members of a coherent complex: Steel, 1991) is of the order of every few centuries or so
(Shoemaker et al., 1990). It is noteworthy that recent observations with the Spacewatch telescope
(the first of _10-100 m-sized objects) indicate this size region to be rather more populous than
previously thought (Rabinowitz, 1992), and those data have been used by Ceplecha (1992). Since
mankind obviously has a vested interest in finding out more about the effects of such impacts (using
that word advisedly since the Ttmguska object detonated in the atmosphere and did not reach the
surface: Krinov, 1963) it is of importance to identify other areas of our planet which have been
subjected to such violations in the recent past (the last few millenia). In this paper it is suggested
that the southern part of the South Island of New Zealand may have been the target of such a
projectile about 800 years ago, so that a scientific study of the region is warranted.
New Zealand context
Near the town of Tapanui in the province of Otago is a structure known as the Landslip Crater
or Landslip Kill (location 1690091 East, 460041 South). This feature is an incomplete ovoid crater
measuring 900 by 600 by 130 metres deep, which geological interpretation points to being a landslide
(Lindqvist, 1990) and not a scar formed by an impact upon the Earth's surface of a large solid
body, as such. Although this is apparently not an impact crater there exists prima .facie evidence
that links this site to a major cataclysm around 800 years ago. It is weli-known that there were
widespread fire(s) at about that time, possibly followed by a deluge, and this has usually been
ascribed to the indigenous Maoris burning specific areas to drive the now-extinct Moas (Dinornis:
a ratite) from the forests (Stevens et al., 1988). Whilst in the North Island of New Zealand the
forests at the time of the arrival of the first Polynesians (ca. 925 AD) were predominantly of
broadleaf trees with few Moas present, in the South Island the forests were of podocarps which
completely covered the island up to the treeline of the Southern Alps (Molloy et al., 1963). In
this environment the Moa flourished. Carbon dating of the charcoal which now pervades the soils
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19930010057 2020-03-17T08:17:58+00:00Z
570 Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 1991
of the southern provinces (Southland, Otago and Canterbury) indicates that these fires occurred
600-1000 years ago with a clustering at ca. 800 years, although some burning may have occurred
earlier, prior to the arrival of humans about a thousand years ago (Molloy et ad., 1963).
The 'conventional wisdom', then, says that the Moa was driven to extinction by the Maoris who
hunted them by setting the fires: the Moa were deliberately driven with the flames into swamps,
where manyMoa remains are now found. If this is what actually happened then the newly-_ived
M_ri=w°uldhavecut Off One °ftheir major sources of food, and ruined a stable environment (this
area of New Zealand is now denuded of forests and is open hill-sheep country_.-Ma_r___storYis quite
cieariy divided into tt_eearly Moa Ha=nterof_Arch_cperiod, and-theIatei C/ass/d_r/period;
the major inland Moa-hunting area covers the Tapanui region (Stevens et al., 1988: p.117), Both
archaeological evidence and spoken Maori history indicate that there were intermittent arrivals of
-peoples from Polynes]abetween 925_d1150AV. The 'Great Migration' which began ca. 1350 AD
apparently (again from Maori legend) post'dates the extinction of the Moa.
However, there is some evidence that indicates a rather more coherent event than might be
expected from gradual forest-burning. Snow (1983) states that the tree fall distribution from that
period points radially away fr0mthe Tapanui site. Pajak (1989, 1990) claims that fallen tre gs are
aligned radially away from this site out to a distance of 40-80 kin, and then tend to po_t radi_y
inwards, and sugg_ts that t_s may be due to _an_expl° si°n at Tapanul b_st_g the closer trees
outwards, With the upwelling from a _estoorm after the blast res_g_ thelnward falls. These
suggestions require scientific study, and the dates of tree falls also require elucidation (it would
seem remarkable if fallen trees from such antiquity_- existed in large quantities). _
Pajak (1989, 1990) also states that small globules of silicates which he terms trinitites, pre-
sumably taking their name from similar sample_ fo_d around the Trinity (New Mexico) site after
the first anthropomorphic nuclear explosion in 1945, are found thereabouts and that these are also
evidence of a cataclysmic explosion, which he attributes to an extraterrestrial spacecraft. The
conventional geological explanation would be that these are from some volcanic explosion, or are
similar to tektites. There is also an abundance of sarsens or Chinamen stones spread across the
vicinity, these being made of quartz sandstone. Pajak (1989, 1990) believes _these to have been
metamorphosed under high temperature _md pressure conditions in his explosion as ment|oned
above, whilst Snow (1983) ascribes them to a bolide entering the atmosphere and breaking up,
possibly after ejection from a lunar impact. Lindqvist (1990) identifies these as being made of flu-
vial quartz sandstone and conglomerates WhiC_havebeens_ca-cemented, so that the_are clearly
produced by normal terrestrial processes, and apparently not related to the effects Of an incoming
asteroid Or comet, if such did in fact occur. _!:: _
There isalsothe evidenceofMaori myth, legend,poetry and song which speak ofti_efallingof the
skies,ragingwinds,upheaval ofthe Earth,and mysteriousdevastatingfiresfrom space.Many local
placenames may be translatedin terms ofa catastrophicevent having occurred thereabouts,and
Tapanei itself apparently means The big ezplosion or The big devastating blow:, there is a Maori
adage that "The history is in the names, and the names are in the land". Another nearby site is
Waipahi, which may be taken to mean The place of the ezploding fire. Other similar place names
exist in abundance, and do not appear commonly elsewhere in New Zealand. Snow (1983) has listed
many of these possible interpretations, and Maori mythology is rife with connections between these
fires, the end of the Moas, and an object falling from the Moon or space. In fact the_or_Moa is
relatively recent; in the early Moa Hunter epoch priort 0 the fires the __as _termed Pouakai,
but afterwards it was remembered as Mane Whakatae, one translation of which is The bird .felled
by strange fire. Again, one Maori lament states that:
Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 1991 571
"Very calm and placid have become the raging billows,
That caused the total destruction of the Moa,
When the horns of the Moon fell from above down."
The idea that the Moa expired in some natural conflagration is not a new one. Hill (1913) argued
for the North Island Moa being destroyed in the aftermath of a volcanic eruption or something
similar, and quotes a conversation with an eighty-eight year old Maori chief: "The Moa disappeared
after the coming of Tamaatea [a man/god] who set fire to the land. The fire was not the same as
our fire but embers sent by Rongi [the sky]. The signs of the fires are still to be seen where red
rocks like berries are found."
Since Maori legend unambiguously indicated the period at which the widespread fires occurred,
and the time at which the Moa died out, and this oral tradition was later verified by modern
Carbon-14 dating and botanical techniques, it would seem plausible that Maori myths may also
contain at least their own interpretation of the origin of these fires. "It is my belief that hidden in
Maori mythology there is also a message about the catastrophic nature of our past" (Snow, 1983).
Astronomical interpretation
As a baseline hypothesis, which in the best traditions of scientific practice requires a disproof, we
adopt the idea that this structure at Tapanui is the scar produced by the detonation of a large
bolide in the atmosphere _/a Tunguska, and the forest fires were ignited by this cataclysmic event.
How does this fit in with present-day ideas of terrestrial catastrophism?
One of the authors [D.S.], in collaboration with others, has advanced the hypothesis that in the
present epoch the Earth is subject to episodes of substantial influx by macroscopic bodies, these
being the debris produced by the break-up of a Giant Comet in the past 10,000-20,000 years. The
various phenomena now seen (recurrent meteor showers, P/Comet Encke, several Apollo asteroids)
are collectively termed the Taurid Complez. We believe that the core of this complex, under orbital
precession, intersects our planet for four periods lasting a century or so, these four epochs being
spread over a cycle time of a few thousand years (see Steel et al., 1991). One such period was
apparently at the start of the present mUlenium (Bailey et al., 1990; Clube and Napier, 1990),
and thus seems to correlate with the time of the entry of the bolide above New Zealand, if our
hypothesis is correct. This also correlates with the putative time of the formation of the Giordano
Bruno crater on the Moon (1178 AD: Hartung, 1976; Clube and Napier, 1990) which Snow (1983)
linked into his baseline model of a large asteroidal impact; such an event within the last miUenium
seems to be an unlikely occurrence.
Yet another nearby place name is Otarehua, where 'Ota' means 'of the' and 'rehua' was the
Maori name for Antares, the (northern) summer star. This may help to indicate the time of year at
which the bolide entry occurred: perhaps near the northern mid-summer (austral mid-winter), when
the daytime Taurid intersection with the Earth is most active and the Tunguska event occurred.
Other place names may indicate the day in the lunar cycle when the New Zealand catastrophe
happened, although without definite knowledge of the year this is not of use in fixing the date.
Whatever the source of the bolide which arrived in the atmosphere above the southern part
of New Zealand about 800 years ago, if this /s what actually occurred then the area would be of
fundamental import in developing our understanding of the response of the Earth to such large
insults. The purpose of this paper is to bring the site to the attention of scientists with expertise
in the various areas which would be necessary for a rigorous study of the area, in order to show
whether or not a Tunguska-type event did occur there around the twelfth century, and if so what
may be learnt from it.
572 Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 1991
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Acknowledgements: This work was supportedby the AustralianResearch Council.A number of
peoplehave helped with discussionsor correspondenceon thistopic,and in particularthe interest
and suggestionsofthe lateBob Williams ofWest Otago are remembered with gratitude.
Post-conference addition: After the presentationof thispaper I [D.S.]was abashed to be in-
formed by E.F. and R. Helin that a similarmyth existsamongst the Australlan aborigines of
western New South Wales (E. Jones, The Story of the Falling Star, Aborigin_ al_=S-tu_!es Pres-s, Can-
berra, 1989). This tells of a foretold falling star bringing fire and havoc as it shot through the skies,
killing many people and depositing strange stones, again with a following deluge. The stones shown
in that book are dearly non-meteoritic in origin (R.H. McNaught has visited the indicated site and
found those rocks to be marble) but this may be due to confusion after centuries of story-telling.


The Tapanui region of New Zealand: Site of a Tunguska around 800 years ago?

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