Vai Lahi

Where is Vai Lahi?

Countries on its shores: Tonga.

Largest lake of: Tonga.

Middle of the lake: 15.60° S, 175.64° W

The story behind it

Vai Lahi is about 4.5 kilometres across and covers 13.6 square kilometres – almost a third of the whole island. Measurements with sound waves showed that it is up to 121 metres deep. Its surface lies only about 23 metres above the sea, so the bottom of the lake is far below sea level. The water is warm and slightly alkaline, which is the opposite of sour. Three islands covered in thick tropical plants rise from the lake, and a fourth one appears only when the water is low. Right next to Vai Lahi, behind a narrow strip of land, lies a much smaller lake called Vai Siʻi. A rare bird, the Tongan megapode, lives only on Niuafoʻou and breeds in the crater. The volcano is still active. Its eruptions have often damaged villages, and after a big eruption in 1946 most of the island's 1 200 people had to leave. Vai Lahi is the largest lake in Tonga.

Find it on the globe

Vai Lahi is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.