Thursday, July 9, 2026
Science

The real Moana story: Why the Polynesians suddenly sailed east

Major drought forced people to migrate across the Pacific beyond Samoa and Tonga and toward the Americas, scientists have discovered. With the new live-action "Moana" film hitting cinemas, a team of geographers and climate scientists from the Universities of Southampton and East Anglia has discovere...

The real Moana story: Why the Polynesians suddenly sailed east
Image: Phys.org
Major drought forced people to migrate across the Pacific beyond Samoa and Tonga and toward the Americas, scientists have discovered. With the new live-action "Moana" film hitting cinemas, a team of geographers and climate scientists from the Universities of Southampton and East Anglia has discovered the true history of the tale. The paper is published in the Journal of Pacific Archaeology.

Originally published at Phys.org

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