Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is a country in the central Pacific Ocean. The permanent population is just over 110,000 (2015), more than half of whom live on Tarawa atoll. The state comprises 32 atolls and one raised coral island, Banaba. They have a total land area of 800 square kilometres (310 sq mi) and are dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres. In terms with its Exclusive Economic Zone in the Pacific, it straddles all three primary geographic regions; Banaba, the Gilbert Islands (Micronesia) and the Line and Phoenix Islands (Polynesia).
The islands which now form the Republic of Kiribati have been inhabited for at least seven hundred years, and possibly much longer. The initial Austronesian peoples’ population, which remains the overwhelming majority today, was visited by Polynesian and Melanesian invaders before the first European sailors visited the islands in the 17th century. For much of the subsequent period, the main island chain, the Gilbert Islands, was ruled as part of the British Empire. The country gained its independence in 1979 and has since been known as Kiribati.
The Line Islands, Teraina Islands or Equatorial Islands, are a chain of atolls and coral islands. Kingman Reef is largely submerged and Filippo Reef is shown on some maps, although its existence is doubted. The islands were formed by volcanic activity and are located in the central Pacific Ocean, south of the Hawaiian Islands. The 11 islands stretch for 2,350 kilometres in a northwest–southeast direction, making it one of the longest island chains of the world. Eight of the islands form part of Kiribati, while the remaining three are United States territories grouped with the United States Minor Outlying Islands. Only Kiritimati and Tabuaeran atolls and Teraina Island have a permanent population.
An atoll, sometimes called a coral atoll, is a ring-shaped coral reef including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. The coral of the atoll often sits atop the rim of an extinct seamount or volcano which has eroded or subsided partially beneath the water. The lagoon forms over the volcanic crater or caldera while the higher rim remains above water or at shallow depths that permit the coral to grow and form the reefs. For the atoll to persist, continued erosion or subsidence must be at a rate slow enough to permit reef growth upward and outward to replace the lost height.
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 form the main part of Kiribati.
Tabiteuea, formerly Drummond's Island, is an atoll in the Gilbert Islands, Kiribati, farther south of the Tarawa Atoll. The atoll consists of two main islands: Eanikai in the north, Nuguti in the south, and several smaller islets in between along the eastern rim of the atoll. The atoll has a total land area of 38 km2 (15 sq mi), while the lagoon measures 365 km2 (141 sq mi). The population numbered 4,899 in 2005, The islanders have customary fishing practices related to the lagoon and the open ocean.
Caroline Island, is the easternmost of the uninhabited coral atolls which comprise the southern Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean of Kiribati.
Abemama (Apamama) is an atoll, one of the Gilberts group in Kiribati, and is located 152 kilometres southeast of Tarawa and just north of the Equator. Abemama has an area of 27.37 square kilometres and a population of 3,299 as of 2015. The islets surround a deep lagoon. The eastern part of the atoll of Abemama is linked together by causeways making automobile traffic possible between the different islets. The outlying islands of Abatiku and Biike are situated on the southwestern side of the atoll.
Aranuka is an atoll of Kiribati, located just north of the equator, in the Gilbert Islands. It has an area of 11.6 square kilometres and a population of 1,057 in 2010. By local tradition, Aranuka is the central island of the Gilbert group.
Aranuka Airport is an airport, located approximately one kilometre north of the centre of Buariki village on the island of Buariki, Aranuka, Kiribati.
Buariki is the largest island in the Aranuka atoll of the Gilbert Islands in the Republic of Kiribati. Together with Takaeang the two large islands form the triangle shape of the atoll with Buariki forming the base.
Kuria is an atoll, formed by a pair of islets, in the Central Gilbert Islands in Kiribati, northwest of Aranuka. The two islets, Buariki and Oneeke, are separated by a 20 metre wide channel on a shallow water platform, which is crossed by a bridge of the connecting road. The islands are surrounded by fringing reef which is broadest on the eastern side of Kuria. The population of Kuria was 980 in 2010.
Nonouti is an atoll and district of Kiribati. The atoll is located in the South Gilbert Islands, 38 km north of Tabiteuea, and 250 km south of Tarawa. The atoll is the third largest in the Gilbert Islands and is the island where the Catholic religion was first established in Kiribati, in 1888.
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 1,798.
Buariki may refer to several places in Kiribati:
Buariki is an island in northern Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands of the Republic of Kiribati and was the site of the World War II Battle of Buariki.
Coral Sun Airways is the younger of two Kiribati airlines, established in January 2009. The airline operates domestic service to all 17 airports in the Gilbert Islands. In 2015 it purchased one new, larger aircraft, capable of flying to the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands. Currently, there is no domestic nor international service to these remote archipelagos to the east of the Gilbert Islands, having 41 and 8,809 inhabitants, respectively, except for one weekly flight on Fiji Airways between Honolulu and Kiritimati (Christmas) Island among the Line Islands.
Air Tungaru was the first airline of Kiribati. As the predecessor of current Air Kiribati, it was Kiribati's national flag carrier. Air Tungaru's main base was the international airport at Kiribati's capital, South Tarawa. From there, regular service was provided to all 16 domestic airports in the Gilbert Islands.
Thomas Gilbert was an 18th-century British mariner.
