Kingman Reef is a largely submerged, uninhabited, triangle-shaped reef, geologically an atoll, 9.0 nmi (20 km) east-west and 4.5 nmi (8 km) north-south, in the North Pacific Ocean, roughly halfway between the Hawaiian Islands and American Samoa. It has an area of 3 hectares and is a unincorporated territory of the United States in Oceania. The reef is administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as the Kingman Reef National Wildlife Refuge. It was claimed by the US in 1859, and later used briefly as stopover for commercial Pacific flying boat routes in the 1930s going to New Zealand; however, the route was changed with a different stopover. It was administered by the Navy from 1934 to 2000, and thereafter the Fish and Wildlife service. It has since become a marine protected area. In the 19th century it was noted as maritime hazard, earning the name Hazard Rocks, and is known to have been hit once in 1876. In the 21st century it has been noted for its marine biodiversity and remote nature. There are hundreds of species of fish and coral on and around the reef.
Navassa Island is a small uninhabited island in the Caribbean Sea. Located northeast of Jamaica, south of Cuba, and 40 nautical miles west of Jérémie on the Tiburon Peninsula of Haiti, it is subject to an ongoing territorial dispute between Haiti and the United States, which administers the island through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The United States Minor Outlying Islands is a statistical designation defined by the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 3166-1 code. The entry code is ISO 3166-2:UM. The minor outlying islands and groups of islands comprise eight United States insular areas in the Pacific Ocean and one in the Caribbean Sea.
In the United States, a territory is any extent of region under the sovereign jurisdiction of the federal government of the United States, including all waters. The United States asserts sovereign rights for exploring, exploiting, conserving, and managing its territory. This extent of territory is all the area belonging to, and under the dominion of, the United States federal government for administrative and other purposes. The United States total territory includes a subset of political divisions.
In the law of the United States, an insular area is a U.S.-associated jurisdiction that is not part of a U.S. state or the District of Columbia. This includes fourteen U.S. territories administered under U.S. sovereignty, as well as three sovereign states each with a Compact of Free Association with the United States. The term also may be used to refer to the previous status of the Swan Islands, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, as well as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands when it existed.
Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions overseen by the federal government of the United States. The American territories differ from the U.S. states and Indian reservations as they are not sovereign entities. In contrast, each state has a sovereignty separate from that of the federal government and each federally recognized Native American tribe possesses limited tribal sovereignty as a "dependent sovereign nation". Territories are classified by incorporation and whether they have an "organized" government through an organic act passed by the Congress. American territories are under American sovereignty and, consequently, may be treated as part of the U.S. proper in some ways and not others. Unincorporated territories in particular are not considered to be integral parts of the U.S., and the U.S. Constitution applies only partially in those territories.
The Guano Islands Act is a United States federal law passed by the Congress that enables citizens of the United States to take possession of unclaimed islands containing guano deposits in the name of the United States. The islands can be located anywhere, so long as they are not occupied by citizens of another country and not within the jurisdiction of another government. It also empowers the president to use the military to protect such interests and establishes the criminal jurisdiction of the United States in these territories.
Serranilla Bank is a partially submerged reef, with small uninhabited islets, in the western Caribbean Sea. It is situated about 350 kilometres (220 mi) northeast of Punta Gorda, Nicaragua, and roughly 280 kilometres (170 mi) southwest of Jamaica. The closest neighbouring land feature is Bajo Nuevo Bank, located 110 kilometres (68 mi) to the east.
Bajo Nuevo Bank, also known as the Petrel Islands, is a small, uninhabited reef with some small grass-covered islets, located in the western Caribbean Sea at 15°53′N78°38′W, with a lighthouse on Low Cay at 15°51′N78°38′W. The closest neighbouring land feature is Serranilla Bank, located 110 kilometres to the west.
Atafu, formerly known as the Duke of York Group, is a group of 52 coral islets within Tokelau in the south Pacific Ocean, 500 kilometres north of Samoa. With a land area of 2.5 square kilometres, it is the smallest of the three islands that constitute Tokelau. It is an atoll and surrounds a central lagoon, which covers some 15 km2 (5.8 sq mi). The atoll lies 800 kilometres south of the equator at 8° 35' South, 172° 30' West. Atafu is the northernmost area under New Zealand sovereignty.
Fakaofo, formerly known as Bowditch Island, is a South Pacific Ocean atoll located in the Tokelau Group. The actual land area is only about 3 km2, consisting of islets on a coral reef surrounding a central lagoon of some 45 km2. According to the 2006 census 483 people officially live on Fakaofo. Of those present 70% belong to the Congregational Church and 22% to the Catholic Church.
Nukunonu, formerly known as Duke of Clarence Island, is the largest atoll within Tokelau, a dependency of New Zealand in the south Pacific Ocean. It comprises 30 islets surrounding a central lagoon, with about 5.5 km2 (2.1 sq mi) of land area and a lagoon surface area of 109 km2 (42 sq mi). Motuhaga is the only islet that has inhabitants. It has an estimated population of 531.
Charles Edward Magoon was an American lawyer, judge, diplomat, and administrator who is best remembered as a governor of the Panama Canal Zone; he also served as Minister to Panama at the same time. He was Provisional Governor of Cuba during the American occupation of Cuba from 1906 to 1909.
The Alto Velo Claim, also referred to as the Alta Vela Affair, was a territorial claim against the Dominican government by American adventurers ejected from Alto Velo Island by Dominican officials in October 1860. In all, three companies claimed U.S. protection of their right to mine guano from the island under the Guano Islands Act of 1856, but the U.S. Department of State never recognized U.S. interests in the island.
The United States has land borders with only Canada and Mexico, both of them long. It has maritime boundaries with many countries due to its extensive exclusive economic zone (EEZ). All of its maritime borders with Canada are at least partially disputed, and its territorial claims on three Caribbean islands are disputed.
Lulu Town, also known as Lulu Ville, is a now uninhabited, former settlement on Navassa Island, claimed by both the United States and neighbouring Haiti, in the Windward Passage.
Alto Velo Island is a small uninhabited island south of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea. Its maximum height is about 152 metres (499 ft) above sea level. It lies on an underwater mountain range which continues to Beata Island and the southwestern coast of the Dominican Republic. It has an area of 1.02 km2 (0.39 sq mi) and is 1.4 km (0.87 mi) long, being oval in shape.
Sarah Ann Island is a vanished island, previously located at 4°0′N154°22′W. It was supposedly discovered in 1858 by Captain William W. Taylor and reported to the U.S. State Department on February 12, 1859, along with 41 other atolls and islands he claimed under the Guano Islands Act. Taylor assigned his interest in Sarah Ann Island and the other islands to the U.S. Guano Company of New York, which bonded them with the U.S. Treasury Department in February 1860; however, a 1933 review of Guano Islands Act claims found no evidence that the island was ever mined. Furthermore, the report noted that no island could be found at the reported coordinates of 4° 0' N, 154° 22' W.
