Mysterious light guides sailors at sea

Researchers have yet to find an explanation for a strange glowing phenomenon on the ocean that may have helped sailors navigate thousands of years ago.

Ancient Austronesian sailors began exploring the world's oceans 6,000 years ago, eventually reaching and settling territories from Madagascar to Easter Island. Researchers still don't know how they managed to navigate such vast distances. But a phenomenon called Te Lapa may have helped them along the way , according to IFL Science .

Te Lapa is a flashing straight light phenomenon that can be seen from 193km away. (Photo: Ancient Origins).

Meaning 'the flash' or 'the twinkling thing , ' Te Lapa is described as a flickering light emanating from the islands that science has yet to fully explain. The strange phenomenon was first mentioned in the West in the early 1970s in a book called 'We, the Navigators,' which discussed indigenous navigation methods and disproved the popular notion that ancient Pacific islanders simply drifted aimlessly and arrived at new lands by chance.

In 1993, anthropologist Marianne George became one of the first Westerners to encounter Te Lapa after traveling to the Solomon Islands. There, she met the chief of the Koloso tribe, Kahia Kaveia. Kaveia described Te Lapa as lines resembling lightning or the rapid flash of a flashlight. According to George, what makes Te Lapa different from other lights at sea is that it emanates from land, so sailors who observe it know they can follow its direction to find land.

Te Lapa is only visible from 120 miles (193 km) out to sea. For Kaveia, most of the islands in his archipelago are less than 100 miles (161 km) apart, so Te Lapa's light is among his most reliable navigational sources.

'If someone really wanted to learn about Te Lapa, they could deploy multiple high-tech light-sensitive cameras and swell sensors to record the phenomenon, study the conditions and causes of it, where the light is coming from and why it's coming from land,' George said.

Kaveia explains that the flashes could be caused by a swell as a wave crashes onto a nearby island and forms a wave crest. Other theories suggest that the Te Lapa lights are bioluminescent marine plankton that somehow work in unison to create straight, flashing lines of light. 'If dinoflagellates like ostracods (plankton the size of a tomato seed) are stimulated, they can emit light straight from land,' George speculates. She also wonders if the flashes are the result of tectonic pulses of energy within the active Pacific Ring of Fire.

Although the phenomenon cannot yet be explained, George concludes that "if detailed scientific research can be conducted and focused on Te Lapa, we can learn much more about light, waves, islands, oceans and marine animals, as well as the ability of humans to directly exploit natural phenomena to achieve their goals."