What Are The Te Lapa Lights That Ancient Polynesians Used To Navigate The Oceans?

[Paul_Exeter]

"Roughly translated as “the flashing” or “something that flashes”, Te Lapa is described as a blinking pulse of light that emanates from islands, yet is virtually unknown to science and completely unexplained. The strange effect was first mentioned in Western literature in the early 1970s when a book called "We, the Navigators" highlighted Indigenous navigation methods and shattered the popular idea that ancient Pacific Islanders simply drifted aimlessly and reached new lands purely by accident"

Full article here:

https://www.iflscience.com/what-are...polynesians-used-to-navigate-the-oceans-67971

 

[Frideswide]

This is interesting. Would something like the green flash help navigation in any way?

 

[Mythopoeika]

This is interesting. Would something like the green flash help navigation in any way?

 

[merricat]

Something that definitely deserves closer inspection. I quite love the idea of bioluminescent navigation.

 

[skinny]

Volcanic activity?
I’m currently reading Gordon White’s Ani.Mystic, where he has a load of focus on the Pacific cultures. Will flick thru. I don’t recall anything about this in his Star.Ships, which looked closely at their navigational star lore, particularly Orion.

Intriguing.

 

[skinny]

Descriptions at this link
https://www.vaka.org/post/navigation-and-piloting-using-te-lapa
suggest maybe jets or sprites - the strange elusive stratospheric lightning phenomenon, but that is super way up in the atmos. Maybe it’s a cousin of that though.

 

[skinny]

Bet Enola would have had a few things to say about it.

 

[skinny]

shattered the popular idea that ancient Pacific Islanders simply drifted aimlessly and reached new lands purely by accident"

For a really detailed and well-researched exploration of their incredibly complex and ritualistic methods of navigation, read Gordon White’s Star.Ships. He’s kind of Chaos Magic’s ascendant guru after Carroll. Big brains. Broad thinker.

 

[brownmane]

Very interesting. I wonder why these have not been more broadly studied? Especially if the lights occurred regularly enough to reliably be used for navigation.

 

[maximus otter]

"Roughly translated as “the flashing” or “something that flashes”, Te Lapa is described as a blinking pulse of light that emanates from islands, yet is virtually unknown to science and completely unexplained. The strange effect was first mentioned in Western literature in the early 1970s when a book called "We, the Navigators" highlighted Indigenous navigation methods and shattered the popular idea that ancient Pacific Islanders simply drifted aimlessly and reached new lands purely by accident"

Full article here:

https://www.iflscience.com/what-are...polynesians-used-to-navigate-the-oceans-67971

Bioluminescence like these waves breaking on a shore?

maximus otter

 

[skinny]

That's so nice. I've done my share of night swimming with never seeing biolumes. Hope to.

Not our guy though, I fear. Seems like some light source from the surface projecting up and being seen from a very distance, perhaps even from over the horizon.

 

[eburacum]

I've heard of 'ice blink', which occurs in arctic and antarctic regions. Reflected light from the ice illuminates the sky, and causes a detectable brightening effect in that direction. So an arctic explorer can determine where the ice-covered land (or icefloes) are, even when they are over the horizon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceblink

The iceblink was used by both the Inuit and explorers looking for the Northwest Passage to help them navigate safely.

I suspect that 'te lapa' is something similar. The albedo (reflectance) of dry land is significantly higher than the reflectance of seawater, although it is not as high as the reflectance of ice. So it is entirely possible that reflected light from the land could cause a kind of 'land blink', analogous to the arctic 'ice blink'.

Indeed, arctic explorers sometimes use the reverse effect, known as a 'water sky'; a dark patch caused by the low reflectivity of open water.

I should note, however, that these effects do not actually 'blink', although they may vary in brightness according to cloud cover over the horizon.

 

[eburacum]

Here's a water sky, indicating the presence of open water near or over the horizon;

and here's an iceblink, showing the reverse effect.

 

[eburacum]

Not our guy though, I fear. Seems like some light source from the surface projecting up and being seen from a very distance, perhaps even from over the horizon.

I wouldn't be so sure. The 'ice blink' and 'water sky' are effects that would only occur in daylight. At night the bioluminescence caused by distant waves breaking on the shore might be an even better indicator of land.

 

[Lb8535]

Of course it's also faintly possible that these ancient sailors used the stars for navigation. You know, just like their European counterparts. Not intended to deny the "blinking lights" but surely some intrepid theorists could take themselves out into the area in an outrigger with no lights and a gps system and test the reports.

 

[kesavaross]

What about when it's cloudy?

The Vikings used a type of shaped pumice that when floated in water it would always point north. As far as I know no one has ever discovered the type of pumice used. Perhaps back then they had a type of 'science' lost to us or maybe the world and nature worked slightly differently?

 

[eburacum]

Of course it's also faintly possible that these ancient sailors used the stars for navigation. You know, just like their European counterparts.

Yes, they did. This is mentioned in the Disney film Moana, much of which is about navigation. Finding and maintaining a latitude is relatively straightforward.
https://theconversation.com/how-far...ower-of-polynesian-celestial-navigation-72375

The width of your pinkie finger at arm’s length is roughly one degree, or double the angular diameter of the Sun or Moon.
Hold your hand with the palm facing outward and thumb fully extended, touching the horizon. Each part of your hand is used to measure a particular altitude.

 

[Lb8535]

What about when it's cloudy?

The Vikings used a type of shaped pumice that when floated in water it would always point north. As far as I know no one has ever discovered the type of pumice used. Perhaps back then they had a type of 'science' lost to us or maybe the world and nature worked slightly differently?

When it was cloudy they prayed a lot and went off course I would guess.

 

[Xanatic*]

No, when it was cloudy they used a crystal that changed colour when pointed in the direction of the sun.

 

[Erinaceus]

The sagas mention a sunstone being used. It's thought it may refer to a calcite crystal which has polarising properties and could be used to find the sun even in cloudy conditions. Unfortunately nobody has ever found one associated with a Viking ship.

 

[Junopsis]

What about when it's cloudy?

The Vikings used a type of shaped pumice that when floated in water it would always point north. As far as I know no one has ever discovered the type of pumice used. Perhaps back then they had a type of 'science' lost to us or maybe the world and nature worked slightly differently?

Titanomagnetite-bearing pumice exists (there's a paper out there on measuring it as a way to analyze the content of the once-magma) and that could certainly work as a lodestone.