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50 free National Park of American Samoa trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The National Park of American Samoa is the only US national park south of the equator, the only one the government could not buy, and the only one where the visitor centre was flattened by a tsunami. This quiz covers the whole story: the 1984 bill to protect flying foxes, the 1988 law and the 1993 lease from village councils, the three units on Tutuila, Ofu and Taʻū, Mount Alava's ladders and old cable car, Pola Island's seabird cliffs, the Old Vatia ridge village, the Toʻaga site and 3,000 years of settlement, Margaret Mead on Taʻū, the Tui Manuʻa who would not cede his land, Lata Mountain and the sea cliffs, the Samoa hotspot and the Vailuluʻu seamount with its 'Eel City', the 2009 earthquake and tsunami, and the fruit bat that made it onto a US quarter. Early questions suit anyone who has snorkelled Ofu Beach; later ones are for travellers who know their Amalau Valley from their Tāfeu Cove: how wide the Āsaga Strait is, which explorer named the Navigator Islands, what 'Olosega' means, and which reptile is found only on Taʻū. Good for a national-parks quiz night or a Pacific trivia round. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the park, its islands and its wildlife, and each question shows its source.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Of the park's 8,257 acres, roughly how many are coral reef and ocean?
2,500
The park is spread across three islands: Tutuila, Ofu and Taʻū.
Q 02What geographical distinction does the park hold within the US National Park Service?
It is the only unit south of the equator
It protects coral reefs, rainforest, fruit bats and Samoan culture.
Q 03The 1984 bill starting American Samoa's path into the park system chiefly protected which animal's habitat?
Fruit bats
Delegate Fofō Sunia introduced it at the request of the Bat Preservers Association and Dr Paul Cox.
Q 04Why could the National Park Service not simply buy the park after it was authorised in 1988?
Land is held communally under Samoan tradition
The solution, in 1993, was a 50-year lease from the village councils.
Q 05How long is the lease the National Park Service signed with the Samoan village councils in 1993?
50 years
Congress approved a 30 percent expansion onto Olosega and Ofu in 2002.
Q 06The September 2009 tsunami destroyed which park facilities?
The visitor centre and main office
Thirty-four people died in American Samoa, but only one NPS staff member or volunteer was injured.
Q 07What was the moment magnitude of the 29 September 2009 earthquake that generated the tsunami?
8.1
Two magnitude-7.8 quakes followed within two minutes, making it a doublet and the largest earthquake of 2009.
Q 08The Tutuila unit of the park lies near which town, the territory's capital?
Pago Pago
It is the only part of the park reachable by car and draws the vast majority of visitors.
Q 09The Mount Alava Adventure Trail on Tutuila is known for featuring how many ladders?
56
It also has 783 steps; the summit is 1,610 feet and a broadcast station was built there in 1964.
Q 10Before its closure, how could visitors reach the Mount Alava viewpoint without hiking?
An aerial cable tramway across Pago Pago Bay
The tramway ran more than a mile from the village of Utulei; the mountain is part of the caldera rim of the Pago Volcano.
Q 11The Tutuila unit's gun emplacements at Breakers and Blunts Points date from which conflict?
World War II
The ridge trail runs through dense forest above slopes that fall steeply to the ocean.
Q 12Pola Island, the basalt sea stack off Vatia that is part of the park, is also known by what English name?
Cockscomb
Lonely Planet called it 'the most beautiful natural feature of Tutuila Island'; at least eight seabird species nest there.
Q 13According to legend, Pola Island and the nearby rocks are the petrified remains of what?
A couple and their daughter whose raft failed at sea
Q 21Which French explorer named Samoa the Navigator Islands in 1768 in admiration of local canoe skills?
Louis Antoine de Bougainville
Roggeveen had reached the Manuʻa group in 1722; Lapérouse was the first European known to land in Samoa, in 1787.
Q 22The Taʻū unit includes Lata Mountain, which is what?
The highest point in American Samoa
The summit trail became overgrown and impassable without machete work.
Q 23The collapse of Taʻū's shield volcano produced sea cliffs on its north side rising more than how high?
3,000 feet
The couple were both named Pola and the daughter Faleofia; they had sailed west from Manuʻa hoping to reach Upolu.
Q 14The Vaiʻava Strait, separating Pola Island from Tutuila, holds what unique status?
The only National Natural Landmark in American Samoa within the park
The landmark covers 250 acres.
Q 15Old Vatia, a prehistoric village inside the park, was occupied between roughly which years?
About 1300 and 1750
It was rediscovered in 1963 by archaeologist William Kikuchi and listed on the National Register in 2006.
Q 16What does the village name Vatia mean?
'Between the tombs of those with paramount status'
The modern coastal village grew after London Missionary Society arrivals from 1830 pulled settlement down from the ridges.
Q 17The Ofu unit, the park's smallest, consists of Sunuitao Peak and a beach roughly how long?
Two miles
Just 70 acres of land and 400 acres of water, yet many visitors call it the most beautiful of the three units.
Q 18How wide is the Āsaga Strait that separates Ofu from its twin island Olosega?
137 metres
People waded across at low tide until a single-lane bridge was built in 1970.
Q 19Archaeological work at the Toʻaga site on Ofu suggests the island has been inhabited for about how long?
3,000 years
Red-slipped plainware ceramics in the Lapita tradition were found by a team including Patrick Vinton Kirch.
Q 20What does the name Olosega mean in Samoan?
Fortress of parakeets
Olosega is the smallest of the Manuʻa Islands and can be reached from Ofu on foot at low tide.
They are among the highest such escarpments in the world.
Q 24Which anthropologist did her 1920s dissertation research on Taʻū, published as 'Coming of Age in Samoa'?
Margaret Mead
She was 23 and concluded that Samoan adolescence lacked the turmoil seen in the United States.
Q 25The sacred site of Saua on Taʻū, inside the park, is traditionally considered what?
The birthplace of the Polynesian people
Taʻū was the seat of the Tui Manuʻa paramount chieftaincy that once ruled all three Manuʻa Islands.
Q 26What did the Tui Manuʻa refuse to do when Commander Tilley came ashore on Taʻū in March 1900?
Cede his own lands on Taʻū
He acknowledged US sovereignty in general terms and accepted protection but insisted Manuʻa could govern itself.
Q 27The Laufuti Falls in the park's Taʻū unit drop roughly how far?
450 metres
They lie a few kilometres southwest of Saua.
Q 28The only native mammals in the park are how many species of bat?
Three
Two are large fruit bats and one, the Pacific sheath-tailed bat, a small insectivore nearly wiped out by Cyclone Val in 1991.
Q 29Unusually for a fruit bat, when is the Samoa flying fox mainly active?
During the day
It forages in early morning and late afternoon, roosts alone or in small family groups, and is believed to be monogamous.
Q 30Commercial export of the Samoa flying fox as a luxury food ended when it was listed under what in 1990?
CITES Appendix I
The IUCN now lists it as Near Threatened; the Samoan word for the bat, peʻa, is also the name of the traditional male tattoo.