Caroline Island

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Caroline Island
CarolinePic-Kepler-South.jpg
Lagoon-facing beach on South Islet
Pacific Ocean laea location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Caroline Island
Kiribati location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Caroline Island
Geography
LocationPacific Ocean
Coordinates 09°57′18″S150°12′45″W / 9.95500°S 150.21250°W / -9.95500; -150.21250
Archipelago Line Islands
Total islandsapproximately 39 islets
Area699 ha (1,730 acres)
Highest elevation6 m (20 ft)
Administration
Demographics
Populationuninhabited

Caroline Island (also known as Caroline Atoll or Millennium Island) is the easternmost of several uninhabited coral atolls comprising the southern Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean nation of Kiribati.

Contents

The atoll was first sighted by Europeans in 1606 and was claimed by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1868. It has been part of the Republic of Kiribati since the island nation's independence in 1979. Caroline Island has remained relatively untouched and is one of the world's most pristine tropical islands, despite guano mining, copra (coconut meat) harvesting, and human habitation in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is home to one of the world's largest populations of the coconut crab and is an important breeding site for seabirds, most notably the sooty tern.

The atoll is known as the first place on Earth to see sunrise each day during much of the year, and for its role in the millennium celebrations of 2000. A 1995 realignment of the International Date Line made Caroline Island the first point of land on Earth to reach 1 January 2000 on the calendar.

History

Prehistory

The atolls (ring-shaped coral reefs) of the Pacific Ocean are the most marginal environment in the world for human habitation. [1] They have generally not been occupied for more than 1,500 years, [2] but started to be settled by humans once permanent islets formed around lagoons. [1] In comparison with other atolls, Caroline Island has been relatively undisturbed. [3]

There are indications that early Polynesians reached the island before Europeans, as several marae (communal or sacred places) and graves have been discovered, but no evidence has been found of long-term settlement. [3] Evidence of the largest of the marae, located on the west side of Nake Islet, was documented in 1883. [4]

Early sightings and accounts

Ferdinand Magellan may have sighted Caroline Island on 4 February 1521. [5] The first recorded sighting of Caroline Island by Europeans was on 21 February 1606, by the Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernández de Quirós, who named the island San Bernardo, and who wrote an account of his voyage. [6] The island was next seen by Europeans on 16 December 1795, when the British naval officer William Robert Broughton of HMS Providence named it Carolina, after the daughter of Philip Stephens, the First Secretary of the Admiralty. [7] The island was sighted in 1821 by the English whaler Supply, and was then named "Thornton Island" for the ship's captain. [7] [8] It was also recorded in the 19th century as Hirst Island [9] and Clark Island. [4]

Other early visits which left behind accounts of the island include that of the USS Dolphin in 1825, written by the United States Navy officer Hiram Paulding. According to this account, the crew of the Dolphin supplied themselves with fish from the island, although when wading back to their ship they were attacked by sharks. [10]

The English whaling ship Tuscan reached Caroline island in 1835, [11] and the geography and wildlife of the island were recorded by the ship's surgeon, the biologist Frederick Debell Bennett, in his Narrative of a Whaling Voyage Round the Globe From the Year 18331836. [12] Bennett knew that the island was seldom visited, "although it is usually 'sighted' by South-Seamen, when on their way from the Society Islands to the North Pacific". He noted that about seven years before the arrival of the Tuscan, a Captain Stavers had landed on the island and left behind some pigs, of which no trace remained. [13]

1883 solar eclipse

The expedition camp at Caroline Island, May 1883.png
The astronomers' camp on Caroline Island, drawn by a member of the expedition
Photograph of totality as seen at Caroline Island (1883).jpg
A photograph of the eclipse, taken on the island

In 1883 two expeditions arrived on Caroline Island in time to observe and record the solar eclipse of 6 May. On 22 March, American and English astronomers left the Peruvian port of Callao aboard the USS Hartford, arriving at the island on 20 April. [14] Among those in the American expedition were the astronomers Edward S. Holden of the Washburn Observatory, the expedition's leader, [15] and Winslow Upton, professor of astronomy at Brown University. [16] [17] An expedition from France arrived two days later in the L'Eclaireur. [14]

As small boats could not come close to the shore, the equipment was carried to the island by men standing in about 2 feet (0.6 m) of water, and then about 500 yards (460 m) further to the observation site. On the morning of 6 May, the sky cleared shortly before the time of first contact, and remained clear for the rest of the day. During the eclipse, the astronomers searched for Vulcan, a hypothetical intra-Mercurial planet, but discovered nothing. The duration of totality (the time the entire disc of the Sun is obscured) was 5 minutes 25 seconds, [14] a little less than the maximum duration of 5 minutes 58 seconds. [18] The Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa, a member of the French expedition, discovered an asteroid later that year, which he named Carolina after the island. [19]

Commercial enterprises and British claim

In 1846, the Tahitian firm of Collie and Lucett attempted to establish a small stock-raising and copra-harvesting community on the island; the operation met with limited financial success. [20] In 1868, Caroline was claimed for Britain by the captain of HMS Reindeer, which noted 27 residents in a settlement on South Islet. The island was leased by the British government to Houlder Brothers and Co. in 1872, with John T. Arundel as the manager; two of the islets are named for him. Houlder Brothers and Co. conducted minimal guano mining on the island from 1874. John T. Arundel and Co. took over the lease and the industry in 1881; the company supplied a total of about 10,000 tons of phosphate until supplies became exhausted in 1895. [4] [21] In 1885 Arundel established a coconut plantation, but the coconut palms suffered from disease and the plantation failed. The settlement on the island lasted until 1904, when the six remaining Polynesians were relocated to Niue. [22]

Caroline Island, visible in an astronaut photograph taken in 2009. The inner lagoon appears a lighter blue than the deeper ocean. Millennium Island, Kiribati.jpg
Caroline Island, visible in an astronaut photograph taken in 2009. The inner lagoon appears a lighter blue than the deeper ocean.

The island was leased to S.R. Maxwell and Company and a new settlement was established in 1916, this time built entirely upon copra export. Much of the South islet was deforested to make way for coconut palms, a non-indigenous plant. [23] The business venture, however, went into debt, and the island's settlement slowly decreased in population. [24] By 1926, it was down to only ten residents, and by 1936, the settlement consisted of only two Tahitian families. It was abandoned in the late 1930s. [25]

During World War II, Caroline Island remained unoccupied, and no military action took place there. [26] Under British jurisdiction, it was formally repossessed by the British Western Pacific High Commission in 1943 and then governed as part of the Central and Southern Line Islands. [24] A Tahitian family was found to be living on the atoll when the American sailor John Caldwell visited it in September 1946. [27] In January 1972, the Central and Southern Line Islands were joined with the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, [28] which had become autonomous in 1971. [29]

Kiribati

When the Gilbert Islands became the independent nation of Kiribati in 1979, Caroline Island became Kiribati's easternmost point. [30] [31] The island is owned by the government of the Republic of Kiribati and overseen by the Ministry of Line and Phoenix Islands Development, which is headquartered on Kiritimati. [31] [32] Claims to sovereignty over the island by the United States were relinquished in the 1979 Treaty of Tarawa, ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1983. [33] [34]

The island was inhabited from 1987 to 1991 by Anne and Ron Falconer and their children, who developed a largely self-sufficient settlement. [35] Following a transfer of ownership, the Falconers left the island. [36] In the 1990s, the island was occasionally visited by Polynesian copra gatherers under agreements with the Kiribati government in Tarawa. [37]

On 23 December 1994, the Republic of Kiribati announced a change of time zone for the Line Islands would take effect on 31 December 1994. [38] This adjustment placed all of Kiribati on the Asian or western side of the International Date Line. [39] Although Caroline Island's longitudinal position of 150 degrees west corresponded to a UTC offset of −10 hours, the island's new time zone became UTC+14. [40] This move made Caroline Island both the easternmost land in the earliest time zone (by some definitions, the easternmost point on Earth), [39] and the first point of land which would see sunrise on 1 January 2000—at 5:43 a.m. local time. [41] Other Pacific nations, including Tonga, New Zealand and Fiji, protested the move, objecting that it infringed on their claims to be the first land to see dawn in the year 2000. [42] According to the United States Naval Observatory, the first point of land to see sunrise on 1 January 2000 (local time) was between the Dibble Glacier and Victor Bay in East Antarctica, at 66 degrees south, where the sun rose at 12:08 a.m. [43]

In August 1997, to promote events to mark the arrival of the year 2000, Caroline Island was renamed Millennium Island by the Kiribati government. [44] In December 1999, over 70 Kiribati singers and dancers travelled to Caroline from South Tarawa, accompanied by approximately 25 journalists, as part of the celebrations to mark the arrival of the new millennium. The broadcast had an estimated audience of up to one billion viewers worldwide. [45]

In 2017 a Russian businessman proposed a deal to invest $350 million to build a resort in Kiribati in exchange for sovereign rights over three islands. The deal was rejected by the Kiribati government based on a report from the Kiribati Foreign Investment Commission. [46]

Geography and climate

Caroline Island lies near the southeastern end of the Line Islands, a string of atolls and islands extending across the equator, 2,400–3,300 km (1,500–2,100 mi) south of the Hawaiian Islands in the central Pacific Ocean. [47] The slightly crescent-shaped atoll has a land area of 699 hectares (2.70 sq mi). [48] It consists of approximately 39 separate islets, [3] surrounding a narrow lagoon; [49] the smallest islet, Motu Atibu, may have disappeared. [50] The islets—which rise to a height of 6 m (20 ft) above sea level [51] —share a common geologic origin, and consist of sand deposits and limestone rock set atop a coral reef. [52] According to the path of the International Date Line, the atoll is the easternmost point of land on Earth. [53]

Map of Caroline Island Map of Millennium Island (Caroline Atoll), Kiribati.svg
Map of Caroline Island

Three islets make up the bulk of Caroline's land area: Nake Islet (91.7 hectares (0.917 km2)) at the north, [54] Long Islet (76.0 hectares (0.760 km2)) at the northeast of the lagoon, [55] and South Islet (104.4 hectares (1.04 km2)) at the southern end. [56] The other islets, most of which were named during a 1988 ecological survey conducted by the naturalists Cameron and Angela Kepler, [57] fall into four groups: the South Nake Islets, the Central Leeward Islets, the Southern Leeward Islets, and the Windward Islets. [58] The island is vulnerable to erosion by spring tides, storms, and strong winds; storms have caused smaller islets to sometimes appear or disappear, and the shapes of larger ones to become altered. [59] [60]

The lagoon, roughly 6 by 0.5 km (3.73 by 0.31 mi) in size, [3] is shallow—it is at most 8.8–13.7 m (29–45 ft) in depth [61] —and is crossed repeatedly by narrow coral heads and patch reefs. Reef flats generally extend over 500 m (1,600 ft) from the shore [62] —although some sources report them to extend more than 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) from land—and make boat landings perilous except at high tide. There are no natural landings, anchorages, or deep water openings into the lagoon; water that spills into it over shallow channels at high tide is contained within the surrounding reef and remains stable despite ocean tides. Most landings are made at a small break in the reef at the northeast corner of South Islet. [63]

There is no standing fresh water on Caroline Island, [64] but Nake Islet and South Islet have underground freshwater aquifers and freshwater lenses. The underground water supply on Nake attracted Polynesian settlers, but the first European explorers to reach the atoll searched in vain for drinking water; [65] wells were built to tap drinking water for later temporary settlements. [64] Little is known about the island's existing freshwater lenses. [64] Soils are of poor quality, dominated by coral gravel and sand, with organic content present only within stable, forested island centers. Guano deposits make island soil, where it does exist, nitrogen-rich. [66]

Like the rest of Kiribati, Caroline Island enjoys a tropical maritime climate which is consistently hot and humid, with air temperatures that relate closely to sea temperature. Across Kiribati average temperatures vary no more than 1  °C from season to season. [67]

Channel between Long Islet and Nake Islet (in background) CarolinePic-Kepler-Long.JPG
Channel between Long Islet and Nake Islet (in background)

There is no weather station located at Caroline. [68] During 2014 (as of 2021 the last year for which data is publicly available), monthly mean temperatures at South Tarawa, the capital of Kiribati, ranged between 28.3 and 29.7 °C (82.9–85.5 °F), with maximum monthly temperatures ranging from 31.0 to 32.5 °C (87.8–90.5 °F) and minimum temperatures ranging from 25.0 to 26.5 °C (77.0–79.7 °F). [69] Caroline Island lies within a region of highly variable precipitation; between 1950 and 2010 the region received an average of 1,700 to 2,500 mm (67 to 98 in) of rain annually. [69] Tides are on the order of 0.5 m (1.6 ft), [70] and trade winds, generally from the northeast, mean that corner of the island experiences the roughest seas. [71]

Caroline Island is among the most remote islands on Earth. [72] It is 230 km (140 mi) from the closest land at Flint Island, and 5,100 km (3,200 mi) from the nearest continental land in North America. [72]

Geology

Caroline Atoll is one of over 175 atolls and coral islands in the Pacific Ocean. The English naturalist and geologist Charles Darwin first suggested the theory, still accepted, that atolls originate from calcium carbonate platforms that grow around the cones of extinct, sinking volcanoes. Caroline Atoll's high volcanic island has subsided below sea level; the surrounding coral reef has developed upwards, built by corals, its typically annular shape caused by underwater weathering. [73] The coral reef will continue to develop as long as it is not overtaken by rising sea levels, in which case the corals will perish and the atoll will stop growing. [74]

The seabed around the Southern Line Islands The seabed around Caroline Island and its nearest neighbours.svg
The seabed around the Southern Line Islands

The Line Islands chain is made of seamounts and ridges from the Tuamotu Islands in the south to Johnston Atoll in the north; [75] which rise from the ocean floor from a depth of 5,000 metres (3.1 mi). [76] Caroline Island is one of 12 seamounts in the chain to rise above sea level. [76]

The igneous rocks of all the Line Islands consist of alkali basalts and hawaiites, and are similar to those found in the Hawaiian Islands. [77] Several models have been proposed to explain the formation of the chain's complex geology. In 1972, the American geophysicist W. Jason Morgan postulated that the chain was formed 70 myr ago in parallel with the creation of the Hawaiian Islands, each by means of a single hotspot. Other experts argued against this model, pointing to geometric and paleomagnetic evidence, and the complex timing of the volcanic episodes that created the Line Island chain. In a 1976 paper, Winterer implied that chains of volcanoes were created by a series of individual hotspots. [75]

Over the next decade it was discovered that Late Cretaceous and Eocene volcanism had occurred close to Caroline Island, as well as thousands of kilometres to the north, which disproved the single hotspot model for the formation of the Line Islands, and instead suggested the chain was made by a more complex series of volcanic events than the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain. [75] During the 1980s, scientists put forward new theories to explain the evolution of the chain, including a transform fracture zone theory (since refuted by paleomagnetic data), and a multiple hotspot model [78] which is still being discussed as of 2020. A combination of hotspot-transform fracture zone phenomena is also possible. [79]

Flora and fauna

Some of the dominant plant species on Caroline Island

Despite more than three centuries of occasional human impact on Caroline Island, it is one of very few remaining near-pristine tropical islands. [80] The United Nations rated the atoll with a 'Human Impact Index' rating of 1 in 1998, making it one of the most unspoiled islands in the world. [81] Its undisturbed state has led to a proposal that it be designated a World Heritage Site and a Biosphere Reserve. [82] Caroline was visited in 1965 by the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program, in 1974 by the Line Island Expedition, [35] and in 1988 and 1991 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Wildlife Conservation Unit. [83] A 1991 Kiribati Government expedition, comprising personnel of the Wildlife Conservation Unit and officials of the Ministry of Line and Phoenix Islands Development, agreed that with the exception of South Islet, Long Islet, and Nake Islet, the Caroline Atoll islets should become Wildlife Sanctuaries. [82]

In 1988, 90% of Caroline Island had vegetation; two-thirds of the vegetation was woodland, and 89% of the plant species were indigenous. Caroline's islets are made up of seven concentric plant communities, defined by a dominant species. One community—dominated by the coconut palm—was made by humans. The other six are: [84]

The coconut crab, a threatened species that lives on Caroline Island Cococrb2.jpg
The coconut crab, a threatened species that lives on Caroline Island

Smaller islets lack the central forest and the smallest islets are vegetated solely by low-lying herbs. [91] Coconut palms were introduced to the atoll after it was first discovered by Europeans, [92] and a large plantation still exists on South Islet, with palms growing to a lesser degree on Long Islet and Nake Islet. [93]

In 2014 the Kiribati government established a fishing exclusion zone extending to 12 nautical miles around each of the southern Line Islands—Caroline, Flint, Vostok, Malden, and Starbuck. [94]

Caroline Island is an important breeding site for several species of seabirds, most notably the sooty tern (Onychoprion fuscata), numbering around 500,000—a colony of sooty terns dominates the eastern islets—and the great frigatebird (Fregata minor), numbering over 10,000, according to estimations made in 1980. Caroline Island and Flint Island host one of the world's largest populations of the coconut crab (Birgus latro). Other native animals include the Tridacna clam, which is abundant in the central lagoon, hermit crabs, and multiple species of lizards. [93]

Giant clam populations reach densities up to four per square foot (43 per m2) in parts of the lagoon. The most common species is the "small giant clam" Tridacna maxima , and the largest clam species, Tridacna gigas , is also found in the lagoon. [94] The lagoon is a nursery habitat for fish species, including important and heavily exploited species such as the blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus) and the endangered Napoleon wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus). [95]

The atoll is designated as a wildlife sanctuary for turtle nesting. [96] The endangered green turtle (Chelonia mydas) nests on the beaches of Caroline Island, but there have been reports of poaching by homesteaders. [93]

Human contact has caused the introduction of about twenty non-native species of flora to Caroline Island, including the vine Ipomoea violacea , which has begun to proliferate. Domestic cats and dogs introduced alongside a small homestead have driven the seabird population away from the islet of Motu Ana-Ana. [93]

Environmental issues

Caroline Island is low-lying, with no land greater than 6 metres (20 ft) above sea level. [49] Regional sea surface temperatures have risen by around 0.1 °C per decade since the 1950s, [60] and in 2006, the United Nations rated the island as among those most vulnerable to rising sea levels. [49] [51] The UNEP reported in 2006 that Caroline could disappear "within the next 3050 years". [97]

Caroline Island has recovered from destruction caused by settlers and business opportunists. The island's indigenous plant and animal species are thriving, [98] and it was reported in 2010 that its coral reefs are among the most pristine in the world. [3] The introduced coconut palm is a highly competitive plant which blocks the light and so prevents other species from growing, but is only prevalent on South Islet. [99] Wildlife can be adversely affected by the presence of tourists or hunters, [99] [100] and since 1979 all animals on the island have been protected under Schedule 2 of Kiribati's Wildlife Conservation Ordinance. [101] As of 2014, no governmental management plan or monitoring programme for the island has been produced. [101]

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 Dickinson 2009, p. 4.
  2. Dickinson 2009, p. 7.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Barott et al. 2010, p. 1.
  4. 1 2 3 Bryan 1942, p. 125.
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  6. Kepler & Kepler 1994, p. 6.
  7. 1 2 Stackpole 1972, p. 353.
  8. Findlay 1884, p. 993.
  9. Panton 2015, p. 119.
  10. Paulding 1831, pp. 72–75.
  11. Bennett 1840, pp. 1, 365.
  12. Bennett 1840, pp. 365–78.
  13. Bennett 1840, p. 369.
  14. 1 2 3 Upton 1883.
  15. Royal Astronomical Society 1884, p. 180.
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  22. Kepler & Kepler 1994, p. 10.
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  24. 1 2 Kepler & Kepler 1994, p. 11.
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  86. Kepler & Kepler 1994, p. 93.
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  89. Kepler & Kepler 1994, p. 56.
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Sources

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Kiritimati is a Pacific Ocean atoll in the northern Line Islands. It is part of the Republic of Kiribati. The name is derived from the English word "Christmas" written in Gilbertese according to its phonology, in which the combination ti is pronounced /s/.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Line Islands</span> Chain of eleven atolls and low coral islands in the central Pacific Ocean

The Line Islands, Teraina Islands or Equatorial Islands are a chain of 11 atolls and coral islands in the central Pacific Ocean, south of the Hawaiian Islands. Eight of the atolls are parts of Kiribati. The remaining three—Jarvis Island, Kingman Reef, and Palmyra Atoll—are territories of the United States grouped with the United States Minor Outlying Islands. The Line Islands, all of which were formed by volcanic activity, are one of the longest island chains in the world, stretching 2,350 km (1,460 mi) from northwest to southeast. One of them, Starbuck Island, is near the geographic center of the Pacific Ocean. Another, Kiritimati, has the largest land area of any atoll in the world. Only Kiritimati, Tabuaeran, and Teraina have a permanent population. Besides the 11 confirmed atolls and islands, Filippo Reef is shown on some maps, but its existence is doubted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geography of Tuvalu</span>

The Western Pacific nation of Tuvalu, formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is situated 4,000 kilometers (2,500 mi) northeast of Australia and is approximately halfway between Hawaii and Australia. It lies east-northeast of the Santa Cruz Islands, southeast of Nauru, south of Kiribati, west of Tokelau, northwest of Samoa and Wallis and Futuna and north of Fiji. It is a very small island country of 26 km2 (10 sq mi). Due to the spread out islands it has the 38th largest Exclusive Economic Zone of 749,790 km2 (289,500 sq mi). In terms of size, it is the second-smallest country in Oceania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atoll</span> Ring-shaped coral reef

An atoll is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical parts of the oceans and seas where corals can develop. Most of the approximately 440 atolls in the world are in the Pacific Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aitutaki</span> Island in the Cook Islands

Aitutaki, also traditionally known as Araʻura and Utataki, is the second most-populated island in the Cook Islands, after Rarotonga. It is an "almost atoll", with fifteen islets in a lagoon adjacent to the main island. Total land area is 18.05 km2 (6.97 sq mi), and the lagoon has an area of between 50 and 74 km2. A major tourist destination, Aitutaki is the second most visited island of the Cook Islands archipelago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tabuaeran</span> Atoll in Line Islands of Kiribati

Tabuaeran, also known as Fanning Island, is an atoll that is part of the Line Islands of the central Pacific Ocean and part of the island nation of Kiribati. The land area is 33.73 square kilometres, and the population in 2015 was 2,315. The maximum elevation is about 3 m (10 ft) above high tide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Butaritari</span> Atoll in the Pacific Ocean island nation of Kiribati

Butaritari is an atoll in the Pacific Ocean island nation of Kiribati. The atoll is roughly four-sided. The south and southeast portion of the atoll comprises a nearly continuous islet. The atoll reef is continuous but almost without islets along the north side. Bikati and Bikatieta islets occupy a corner of the reef at the extreme northwest tip of the atoll. Small islets are found on reef sections between channels on the west side. The lagoon of Butaritari is deep and can accommodate large ships, though the entrance passages are relatively narrow. It is the most fertile of the Gilbert Islands, with relatively good soils and high rainfall. Butaritari atoll has a land area of 13.49 km2 (5.21 sq mi) and a population of 3,224 as of 2015. During World War II, Butaritari was known by United States Armed Forces as Makin Atoll, and was the site of the Battle of Makin. Locally, Makin is the name of a separate but closest atoll, 3 kilometres to the northeast of Butaritari, but close enough to be seen. These two atolls share a dialect of the Gilbertese language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vostok Island</span> Uninhabited coral island of eastern Kiribati

Vostok Island is an uninhabited coral island in the central Pacific Ocean, part of the Line Islands belonging to Kiribati. Other names for the island include Anne Island, Bostock Island, Leavitts Island, Reaper Island, Wostock Island or Wostok Island. The island was first sighted in 1820 by the Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who named the island for his ship Vostok.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Namdrik Atoll</span>

Namdrik Atoll or Namorik Atoll is a coral atoll of two islands in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands. Its total land area is only 2.8 square kilometers (1.1 sq mi), but it encloses a lagoon with an area of 8.4 square kilometers (3.2 sq mi). The atoll had a population of 299 at the 2021 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coral island</span> Island formed from coral and associated material

A coral island is a type of island formed from coral detritus and associated organic material. It occurs in tropical and sub-tropical areas, typically as part of a coral reef which has grown to cover a far larger area under the sea. The term low island can be used to distinguish such islands from high islands, which are formed through volcanic action. Low islands are formed as a result of sedimentation upon a coral reef or of the uplifting of such islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toke Atoll</span>

Toke Atoll or Taka Atoll is a small, uninhabited coral atoll in the Ratak Chain of the Marshall Islands. It is one of the smaller atolls in the Marshalls and located at 11°17′N169°37′E. It is visited regularly by the residents of nearby Utirik Atoll.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Makin (atoll)</span>

Makin is the name of an atoll, chain of islands, located in the Pacific Ocean island nation of Kiribati. Makin is the northernmost of the Gilbert Islands, with a population of 1,990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Funafuti</span> Atoll and one of nine districts of Tuvalu

Funafuti is the capital of the island nation of Tuvalu. It has a population of 6,320 people. More people live in Funafuti than the rest of Tuvalu combined, with it containing approximately 60% of the nation's population. It consists of a narrow sweep of land between 20 and 400 metres wide, encircling a large lagoon 18 km long and 14 km wide. The average depth of the Funafuti lagoon is about 20 fathoms. With a surface area of 275 square kilometres (106.2 sq mi), it is by far the largest lagoon in Tuvalu. The land area of the 33 islets around the atoll of Funafuti totals 2.4 square kilometres (0.9 sq mi); taken together, they constitute less than one percent of the total area of the atoll. Cargo ships can enter Funafuti's lagoon and dock at the port facilities on Fongafale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoenix Islands Protected Area</span> Marine protected area in central Kiribati

The Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) is located in the Republic of Kiribati, an ocean nation in the central Pacific approximately midway between Australia and Hawaii. PIPA constitutes 11.34% of Kiribati's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and with a size of 408,250 km2 (157,630 sq mi), it is one of the largest marine protected areas (MPA) and one of the largest protected areas of any type on Earth. The PIPA was also designated as the world's largest and deepest UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010.

The Funafuti Conservation Area is a marine conservation area covering 33 square kilometers of reef, lagoon and motu (islets) on the western side of Funafuti atoll in Tuvalu. The marine environment of the conservation area includes reef, lagoon, channel and ocean; and are home to many species of fish, corals, algae and invertebrates. The islets are nesting sites for the green sea turtle and Fualopa hosts a breeding colony of black noddy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coral reefs of Tuvalu</span> List of coral reefs in Tuvalu

The coral reefs of Tuvalu consist of three reef islands and six atolls, containing approximately 710 km2 (270 sq mi) of reef platforms. The islands of the Tuvalu archipelago are spread out between the latitude of 5° to 10° south and longitude of 176° to 180°, west of the International Date Line. The islands of Tuvalu are volcanic in origin. On the atolls, an annular reef rim surrounds the lagoon, and may include natural reef channels. The reef islands have a different structure to the atolls, and are described as reef platforms as they are smaller tabular reef platforms that do not have a salt-water lagoon, although they may have a completely closed rim of dry land, with the remnants of a lagoon that has no direct connection to the open sea or that may be drying up.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coral reefs of Kiribati</span> Pacific Ocean Island chain

The Coral reefs of Kiribati consists of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, Banaba, which is an isolated island between Nauru and the Gilbert Islands. The islands of Kiribati are dispersed over 3.5 million km2 (1.4 million sq mi) of the Pacific Ocean and straddle the equator and the 180th meridian, extending into the eastern and western hemispheres, as well as the northern and southern hemispheres. 21 of the 33 islands are inhabited. The groups of islands of Kiribati are: