By the end of the century, sea level rise was able to push strong seasonal waves into 15 iconic moai statues on Easter Island. New research Featured in the Journal of Cultural Heritage. Around 50 other cultural sites in the area are also at risk of flooding.
“Sea level rise is real,” said Noah Paoa, the study’s lead author and a doctoral student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa University’s Faculty of Marine Science and Technology. “That’s not a far-fetched threat.”
Paoa, who came from Easter Island, is known to indigenous people as Rapanui – and his colleagues have built a high-resolution “digital twin” of the island’s east coastline and have run computer models to simulate the impact of future waves under various sea-level rise scenarios. The results were then overlaid on a map of cultural sites to identify which locations could be flooded in the coming decades.
Findings show that the waves could reach the island’s largest ritual platform, Ahu Tongariki. In 2080, the site, home to 15 towering Moai, attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year and is the cornerstone of the island’s tourist economy.
Beyond its economic value, the AHU is deeply woven into Rapanui’s cultural identity. It is located within Rapanui National Park, which covers most of the island and is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Moai statues stand on Rapanui, or Ahu Tongariki on Easter Island, Chile, or on November 27, 2022, on Easter Island.
Around 900 Moai statues across the island were erected by the Rapanui people between the 10th and 16th centuries to honor important ancestors and chieftains.
The threat is not unprecedented. In 1960, the largest earthquake ever recorded – a magnitude of 9.5 off the Chilean coast – struck a tsunami throughout the Pacific Ocean. It hit Rapanui, cleaning up the already rough moai further inland, damaging some of its functions. The monument was restored in the 1990s.
Although this study focuses on Rapanui, its conclusions reflect a broader reality. Heritage sites around the world are increasingly at risk for rising seas. This was discovered in a UNESCO report released last month. 50 World Heritage Sites It is exposed to coastal floods.
In an email to The Associated Press, a UNESCO spokesperson said climate change is the biggest threat to the UNESCO World Heritage marine site. “In the Mediterranean and Africa, almost three-quarters of coastal lowlands are exposed to erosion and flooding due to accelerated sea level rise.”
Possible defenses of Ahu Tongariki range from decorating the coastline and building breakwaters to relocating the monuments.
Paoa hopes that the findings will bring these conversations now, not after irreversible damage.
“It’s best to look ahead and be proactive, rather than reacting to a potential threat,” he said.
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