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LiveScience
LiveScience
Jess Thomson

There's a humongous boulder on a cliff in Tonga. Now we know how it got there.

UQ researcher Martin Köhler stands in front of the Maka Lahi boulder.

A massive boulder perched hundreds of feet from the edge of a cliff in Tonga appears to have been transported by an ancient tsunami, making it one of the biggest rocks moved by a wave on Earth.

The boulder, which was discovered in 2024 on the southern coast of the Tongan island of Tongatapu, sits 656 feet (200 meters) inland from the cliff edge, at an elevation of 128 feet (39 m) above sea level. And it is enormous, measuring 45.9 x 39.3 x 22 feet (14 x 12 x 6.7 meters) and weighing over 1,300 tons (1,180 metric tons) .

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