Line Islands

Last updated

Line Islands
Native name:
Teraina Islands
Line Islands location map (with names).svg
Kiribati location map.svg
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Line Islands
Oceania laea location map.svg
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Line Islands
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Line Islands
Geography
Location Pacific Ocean
Coordinates 1°42′N157°12′W / 1.7°N 157.2°W / 1.7; -157.2
Total islands11
Area503.28 km2 (194.32 sq mi)
Flag of Kiribati.svg  Kiribati
Administrative divisionNone
Largest island settlement Kiritimati (pop. 6,447)
Flag of the United States.svg  United States
Territories Incorporated
Flag of the United States.svg  Palmyra Atoll
Unincorporated
Flag of the United States.svg  Jarvis Island
Flag of the United States.svg  Kingman Reef

The Line Islands, Teraina Islands or Equatorial Islands (Gilbertese : Aono Raina) are a chain of 11 atolls (with partly or fully enclosed lagoons, except Vostok and Jarvis) and coral islands (with a surrounding reef) 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 ( 4°58′S158°45′W / 4.97°S 158.75°W / -4.97; -158.75 ). [1] 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.

Contents

The International Date Line passes through the Line Islands. The ones that are parts of Kiribati are in the world's farthest forward time zone, UTC+14:00. The time of day in these atolls is 24 hours ahead of the state of Hawaii in the United States, which uses UTC−10:00, and 26 hours ahead of some other islands in Oceania, such as Baker Island, which uses UTC−12:00.

Overview

Copra and pet fish are the islands' main export products (along with seaweed).

Map Map of Kiribati CIA WFB.png
Map

Archaeologists have identified the remains of coral Marae platforms and/or village complexes on several of the islands, [2] including the Kiritimati and Tabuaeran atolls, Teraina Island, Malden, Millennium Atoll and Flint Island. These remains are dateable as far back as the 14th century, and show that the inhabitants of the Line Islands were more than just castaways. [3]

Most 18th-century visitors to these isles overlooked these telltale signs of former Polynesian settlement. This included Captain Cook, who landed on Christmas Island (now called Kiritimati) in 1777, as well as Captain Fanning, who visited Teraina (Washington Island) and Tabuaeran (Fanning Atoll) in 1798.

In the 19th century, whaling ships were regular visitors to the islands. They came in search of water, wood and provisions. The first whaler recorded to have visited one of them was the Coquette, which docked at Kiritimati (then called Christmas Island) in 1822. [4]

In 1888, the United Kingdom was planning to lay the Pacific cable, and annexed the islands with a view to using Tabuaeran (then Fanning Island) as one of the relay stations for the cable. The cable was laid and was operational between 1902 and 1963 (except for a short period in 1914).

In 1916, the British annexed Fanning and Washington islands, making them part of the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. [5] In 1919, they annexed Christmas Island to the same colony. [6] The Line Islands occasionally featured briefly in the biennial reports furnished by the Colony's resident commissioner to the Colonial Office and Parliament in London (see, for example, the reports submitted in 1966 and 1967 [7] ).

The United States contested the British annexations, based on the U.S. Guano Islands Act of 1856, which allowed for very wide-ranging territorial claims. It relinquished these claims only in 1979, when it entered into the Treaty of Tarawa, which recognised Kiribati's sovereignty over the majority of the Line Islands chain.

List of atolls, islands and reefs

Geographically, the Line Islands is divided into three subgroups: the Northern, Central, and Southern Line Islands (however, the Central Line Islands are sometimes grouped with the Southern Line Islands). The table below lists the islands from north to south.

Atoll / Island / Reef Area (km2)Population [8] CoordinatesStatus
LandLagoon
Northern Line Islands (Fanning's Group)
Kingman Reef 0.01 [8] 600 6°24′N162°24′W / 6.400°N 162.400°W / 6.400; -162.400 (Kingman Reef) U.S. territory (unincorporated)
Palmyra Atoll 3.9 [8] 84 5°52′N162°6′W / 5.867°N 162.100°W / 5.867; -162.100 (Palmyra Atoll) U.S. territory (incorporated)
Teraina
(Washington Island) [9] 		9.55 [10] 2*1,155 [10] 4°43′N160°24′W / 4.717°N 160.400°W / 4.717; -160.400 (Teraina) A part of Kiribati
Tabuaeran
(Fanning Island) [11] 		33.73 [10] 1102,539 [10] 3°52′N159°22′W / 3.867°N 159.367°W / 3.867; -159.367 (Tabuaeran) A part of Kiribati
Kiritimati
(Christmas Island) [12] 		388.39 [10] 217.61 [10] [13] 5,115 [10] 1°53′N157°24′W / 1.883°N 157.400°W / 1.883; -157.400 (Kiritimati) A part of Kiribati
Central Line Islands
Jarvis Island 5 [8] —0 0°22′S160°03′W / 0.367°S 160.050°W / -0.367; -160.050 (Jarvis Island) U.S. territory (unincorporated)
Malden Island 39.313*0 4°01′S154°59′W / 4.017°S 154.983°W / -4.017; -154.983 (Malden Island) A part of Kiribati
Filippo Reef
(existence uncertain)		—1.50 5°30′S151°50′W / 5.500°S 151.833°W / -5.500; -151.833 (Filippo Reef) Outside the I-Kiribati EEZ
Starbuck Island 16.24*0 5°37′S155°56′W / 5.617°S 155.933°W / -5.617; -155.933 (Starbuck Island) A part of Kiribati
Southern Line Islands
Millennium Island
(Caroline Island)		3.766.30 9°57′S150°13′W / 9.950°S 150.217°W / -9.950; -150.217 (Millenium Island) A part of Kiribati
Vostok Island 0.24—0 10°03′43″S152°18′46″W / 10.06194°S 152.31278°W / -10.06194; -152.31278 (Vostok Island) A part of Kiribati
Flint Island 3.20.01*0 11°26′S151°48′W / 11.433°S 151.800°W / -11.433; -151.800 (Flint Island) A part of Kiribati
Line Islands503.28422.428,813

Note:

*The lagoon areas marked with an asterisk are included in the land areas of the previous column because, unlike typical lagoons in atolls, they are inland waters completely sealed off from the sea.

Time zone realignment

Following a 1995 time zone realignment, Millennium Island, then Caroline Island, (red dot at far east of map) became the easternmost land west of the International Date Line. DateLine-with-Caroline-Island.PNG
Following a 1995 time zone realignment, Millennium Island, then Caroline Island, (red dot at far east of map) became the easternmost land west of the International Date Line.

On 23 December 1994, the Republic of Kiribati announced a change of time zone for the Line Islands, to take effect from 31 December 1994. This adjustment effectively moved the International Date Line more than 1,000 km (620 mi) to the east within Kiribati, which placed all of Kiribati on the Asian or western side of the date line, despite the fact that Millennium Island's longitude of 150 degrees west corresponds to UTC−10:00 rather than to its official time zone of UTC+14:00. Millennium Island is now at the same time as the Hawaiian Islands (Hawaii–Aleutian Time Zone), but one day ahead. [14] This move made Millennium Island (then Caroline Island) the easternmost land in the earliest time zone (by some definitions, the easternmost point on Earth), and one of the first points of land which saw sunrise on 1 January 2000 – at 5:43 am, as measured by local time.

The move was the fulfilment of a campaign promise by Kiribati President Teburoro Tito. Previously, the country straddled the Date Line, thus being constantly in two different days. Kiribati officials later capitalised on the nation's new status as owners of the first land to see sunrise in 2000. [15] Other Pacific nations, including Tonga and New Zealand's Chatham Islands, protested the move, objecting that it interfered with their own claims to be the first land to see dawn in the year 2000. [16]

In 1999, to further capitalise upon the massive public interest in celebrations marking the arrival of the year 2000, Caroline Island was officially renamed Millennium Island. Although the island is uninhabited, a special celebration was held there to mark the occasion. It featured performances by native Kiribati entertainers and was attended by Kiribati's President Tito. [17] Over 70 Kiribati singers and dancers travelled to Millennium Island from the capital, South Tarawa, [18] accompanied by approximately 25 journalists. The celebration, which was broadcast worldwide by satellite, had an estimated audience size of as many as one billion viewers. [17]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kiribati</span> Country in the central Pacific Ocean

Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean. Its permanent population is over 119,000 as of the 2020 census, with more than half living on Tarawa atoll. The state comprises 32 atolls and one remote raised coral island, Banaba. Its total land area is 811 km2 (313 sq mi) dispersed over 3,441,810 km2 (1,328,890 sq mi) of ocean.

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

Kiribati consists of 32 atolls and one island in an expanse of ocean equivalent in size to the contiguous United States. The islands are scattered such that Kiribati has territory located in each of the four hemispheres. The islands of Kiribati lie roughly halfway between Hawaii and Australia in the Micronesian and Polynesian regions of the South Pacific. The three main island groupings are the Gilbert Islands, Phoenix Islands, and Line Islands. On 1 January 1995 Kiribati moved the International Date Line to include its easternmost islands and make it the same day throughout the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kiritimati</span> Coral atoll in the northern Line Islands, Kiribati

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">Gilbert Islands</span> 1976–1979 British colony in the Pacific

The Gilbert Islands are a chain of sixteen atolls and coral islands in the Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Papua New Guinea and Hawaii. They constitute the main part of the country of Kiribati.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilbert and Ellice Islands</span> 1892–1976 British colony in the Pacific

The Gilbert and Ellice Islands in the Pacific Ocean were part of the British Empire from 1892 to 1976. They were a protectorate from 1892 to 12 January 1916, and then a colony until 1 January 1976, and were administered as part of the British Western Pacific Territories (BWPT) until they became independent. The history of GEIC was mainly characterized by phosphate mining on Ocean Island. In October 1975, these islands were divided by force of law into two separate colonies, and they became independent nations shortly thereafter: the Ellice Islands became Tuvalu in 1978, and the Gilbert Islands with Banaba became part of Kiribati in 1979.

<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">Tamana, Kiribati</span> Island of Kiribati

Tamana is the smallest island in the Gilbert Islands. It is accessible both by boat and by air with Air Kiribati and Coral Sun Airways. 1,054 people live in Tamana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarawa</span> Atoll in the South Pacific

Tarawa is an atoll and the capital of the Republic of Kiribati, in the Micronesia region of the central Pacific Ocean. It comprises North Tarawa, which has 6,629 inhabitants and much in common with other more remote islands of the Gilbert group, and South Tarawa, which has 56,388 inhabitants as of 2015, half of the country's total population. The atoll was the site of the Battle of Tarawa during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teraina</span> Coral atoll in the Line Islands belonging to Kiribati

Teraina is a coral atoll in the central Pacific Ocean and part of the Northern Line Islands which belong to Kiribati. Obsolete names of Teraina are New Marquesas, Prospect Island, and New York Island. The island is located approximately 4.71° North latitude and 160.76° West longitude. Teraina differs from most other atolls in the world in that it has a large freshwater lake, an open lens, concealed within its luxuriant coconut palm forest; this is the only permanent freshwater lake in the whole of Kiribati.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UTC−10:00</span> Time zone 10 hours behind UTC

UTC−10:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of −10:00. This time is used in Hawaii, Alaska, French Polynesia, and the Cook Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UTC+14:00</span> Time offset from UTC of +14

UTC+14:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +14:00. This is the earliest time zone on Earth, meaning that areas in this zone are the first to see a new day, and therefore the first to celebrate a New Year. It is also referred to as the "latest time zone" on Earth, as clocks in it always show the 'latest' time of all time zones.

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

Beru is an atoll in the Southern Gilbert Islands in the Pacific Ocean, part of the Republic of Kiribati. Beru was previously known as Eliza, Francis Island, Maria, Peroat, Peru Island or Sunday. It's part of a larger reef with the Nuka Lagoon at its center, and the nearest island is Nikunau. The Tabiang Lagoon is present in the north. Beru is home to 2,051 inhabitants. Due to sea surges, the atoll is experiencing coastal erosion along with damages to seawalls.

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

Nikunau is a low coral atoll in the Gilbert Islands that forms a council district of the Republic of Kiribati. It consists of two parts, with the larger in the northwest, joined by an isthmus about 150 metres (490 ft) wide.

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

Onotoa is an atoll of Kiribati. It is situated in the Gilbert Islands in the Pacific Ocean, 65 km (40 mi) from Tamana, the smallest island in the Gilberts. The population of Onotoa in the 2015 census was 1,393.

<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">Betania, Kiribati</span>

Betania is a settlement located on Tabuaeran atoll, Kiribati in the central Pacific Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of Tuvalu</span> Overview of and topical guide to Tuvalu

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Tuvalu:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Polynesian tropical moist forests</span> Terrestrial ecoregion in central Polynesia

The Central Polynesian tropical moist forests is a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregion in Polynesia. It includes the northern group of the Cook Islands, the Line Islands in Kiribati, and Johnston Atoll, Jarvis Island, Palmyra Atoll, and Kingman Reef which are possessions of the United States.

<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:

Kiribati, a country in Oceania comprising 32 atolls and reef islands and one raised coral island, observes three time zones, ranging from UTC+12:00 to +14. Kiribati does not observe daylight saving time.

References

  1. ↑ "International Journal of Oceans and Oceanography, Volume 15 Number 1, 2021, Determining the Areas and Geographical Centers of Pacific Ocean and its Northern and Southern Halves, pp 25-31, Arjun Tan". Research India Publications. Archived from the original on 21 June 2022. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  2. ↑ Patricia A. Nagel (1992). Results of the First Joint US-USSR Central Pacific Expedition (BERPAC): Autum[n] 1988. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. p.  6. Archived from the original on 2 September 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
  3. ↑ di Piazza, Anne; Pearthree, Erik (2001). "Voyaging and basalt exchange in the Phoenix and Line archipelagoes: the viewpoint from three mystery islands" (PDF). Oceania Archaeology. 36 (3): 146–152. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4453.2001.tb00488.x . Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  4. ↑ Robert Langdon (ed.) Where the whalers went: an index to the Pacific ports and islands by American whalers (and some other ships) in the 19th century, Canberra, Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, 1984, p. 149 ISBN   0-86784-471-X.
  5. ↑ Order in Council Annexing the Ocean, Fanning, and Washington islands to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, 1916.
  6. ↑ Order in Council under the Colonial Boundaries Act, 1895, Annexing Christmas Island to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, 1919.
  7. ↑ Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony. (1969). Report for the Years 1966 and 1967. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Australia-Oceania :: United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges". CIA – The World Factbook. US CIA. Archived from the original on 8 April 2022. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  9. ↑ "22. Teeraina" (PDF). Office of Te Beretitent – Republic of Kiribati Island Report Series. 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 May 2017. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Kiribati 2005 Census of Population and Housing: Provisional Tables" (PDF). Kiribati National Statistics Office. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 August 2011. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  11. ↑ "21. Tabuaeran" (PDF). Office of Te Beretitent – Republic of Kiribati Island Report Series. 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  12. ↑ "20. Kiritimati" (PDF). Office of Te Beretitent – Republic of Kiribati Island Report Series. 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  13. ↑ "CIA – The World Factbook – Kiribati". The World Factbook. US CIA. Archived from the original on 27 March 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  14. ↑ Harris, Aimee (August 1999). "Date Line Politics". Honolulu Magazine. p. 20. Archived from the original on 28 June 2006. Retrieved 10 June 2006.
  15. ↑ Kristof, Nicholas D. (23 March 1997). "Tiny Island's Date-Line Jog in Race for Millennium". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 13 July 2020. Retrieved 10 June 2006.
  16. ↑ Letts, Quentin (25 January 1996). "Pacific braces for millennium storm over matter of degrees". The Times. Archived from the original on 28 June 2006. Retrieved 10 June 2006.
  17. 1 2 "2000 greeted with song, dance". The Japan Times. Associated Press. 1 January 2000. Archived from the original on 13 July 2020. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
  18. ↑ "Millennium Island greets Y2K warmly". ClimateArk.org. Associated Press. 30 December 1999. Archived from the original on 13 February 2005. Retrieved 11 June 2006.
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