The Three Brothers are a group of three small coral islands 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of Eagle Islands along the central western rim of the Great Chagos Bank, which is the world's largest coral atoll structure, located in the Chagos Archipelago.
The Three Brothers are a group of three small coral islands 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of Eagle Islands along the central western rim of the Great Chagos Bank, which is the world's largest coral atoll structure, located in the Chagos Archipelago.
The individual islands are, from north-west to south-east:
Discovered by the Portuguese, by Vasco da Gama, the islands were known as Bassas de Chagos. In 1975 during the Joint Services Expedition to Danger Island (JSDI), the expedition members were taken by RFA Resurgent to Eagle Islands, then by ketch and inflatable craft to Danger Island, and then to Three Brothers. The expedition made a topographical survey of the coral reefs, an ecological survey of the Pangus corals on it, and a study on the metabolism of the reef. [1] A reference collection of samples of the flora and fauna of the area was also undertaken. [2] Small, rocky Resurgent Island emerged after the naming of the Three Brothers, and was named after the RFA Resurgent, which supported the 1975 Danger Island scientific research expedition to the area.
Since 1998 the islands have been part of the Chagos Archipelago Strict Nature Reserve. It is forbidden to land on the islands or anchor a boat nearby. The islands have large populations of nesting seabirds, including brown noddies, lesser noddies, sooty terns and Audubon's shearwaters. [3]
Diego Garcia is the largest island of the Chagos Archipelago, part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). It has been used as a joint UK-U.S. military base since the 1970s, following the forcible expulsion of its inhabitants by the UK government. The Chagos Islands have been a British overseas territory, but in early October 2024, the UK agreed to transfer sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius, while allowing the military base to remain under a 99-year lease, pending a treaty ratification.
RFA Stromness (A344) was a fleet stores ship which served the Royal Fleet Auxiliary until sold to the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command in 1983. While in the service of British forces, it saw service in the Falklands War. After the sale to the United States, it was renamed USNS Saturn (T-AFS-10) and acted as a combat stores ship until it was deactivated in 2009; it was able to supply two other ships at once. In 2010, it was sunk in an exercise by the U.S. Carrier Strike Group Two off the coast of North Carolina.
RFA Resurgent (A280) was an armament support ship of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA). Built by Scotts of Greenock as Changchow, a cargo/passenger liner for the China Navigation Co. Made redundant by the Communist victory in 1949, Changchow and her sistership Chungking were chartered to the French « Messageries Maritimes », for the Marseilles-Sydney line, via Panama. Purchased by the Admiralty and chartered out to British India until 1957. In 1956-1957, under the name Resurgent, she was again chartered to the « Messageries Maritimes », making trips to New Caledonia and Australia. After that, she was converted to an armament store issuing ship and entered RFA service.
RFA Gold Ranger (A130) was a Ranger-class fleet support tanker of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary which first served in World War II.
The Chagos Archipelago or Chagos Islands is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean about 500 kilometres (310 mi) south of the Maldives archipelago. This chain of islands is the southernmost archipelago of the Chagos–Laccadive Ridge, a long submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean. In its north are the Salomon Islands, Nelsons Island and Peros Banhos; towards its south-west are the Three Brothers, Eagle Islands, Egmont Islands and Danger Island; southeast of these is Diego Garcia, by far the largest island. All are low-lying atolls, save for a few extremely small instances, set around lagoons.
Peros Banhos, Pedro dos Banhos or Baixos de Pêro dos Banhos in old maps, is a formerly inhabited atoll in the Chagos Archipelago of the British Indian Ocean Territory, also claimed by Mauritius.
The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is an archipelago of 55 islands in the Indian Ocean, located south of India. It is situated approximately halfway between Africa and Indonesia. The islands form a semicircular group with an open sea towards the east. The largest, Diego Garcia, is located at the southern extreme end. It measures 60 square kilometres (23 sq mi) and accounts for almost three-quarters of the total land area of the territory. Diego Garcia is the only inhabited island and is home to the joint UK-US naval support facility. Other islands within the archipelago include Danger Island, Three Brothers Islands, Nelson Island, and Peros Banhos, as well as the island groups of the Egmont Islands, Eagle Islands, and the Salomon Islands.
Saint Brandon, also known as the Cargados Carajos Shoals, is a southwest Indian Ocean archipelago of sand banks, shoals and islets belonging to the Republic of Mauritius. It lies about 430 km (270 mi) northeast of the island of Mauritius. It consists of five island groups, with about 28-40 islands and islets in total, depending on seasonal storms and related sand movements.
Eagle Islands is a group of two islands in the Chagos Archipelago. They are located on the central-western rim of the Great Chagos Bank, which is the world's largest coral atoll structure.
Danger Island is the westernmost and the southernmost island of the Great Chagos Bank, which is the world's largest coral atoll structure, located in the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
Egmont Islands is an uninhabited atoll administered by the United Kingdom. They are one of the few emerged coral atolls that make up the Chagos Archipelago, British Indian Ocean Territory.
Nelsons Island or Nelson Island or Isle Legour is a small uninhabited island in the Great Chagos Bank, of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. As a protected nature reserve, access to the island is strictly restricted.
Blenheim Reef is a partly submerged atoll structure in the Chagos Archipelago, Indian Ocean. It includes the coral reef of Baxio Predassa in its southeastern rim, plus another completely submerged part. It is located in the northeastern part of the Chagos Archipelago. It measures almost eleven kilometres (north–south) by more than four kilometres (east–west), with a total area of 36.8 square kilometres, including the lagoon of 8.5 km2, the difference being accounted for the mostly by the reef flat. Only on the eastern side, there are a few sand cays above the water. The largest of them is East Island, which is not quite 200 metres long and 70 metres wide. The other islands in the group are North, Middle and South. Only a few grasses grow on the island. The lagoon is up to 18 metres deep and encumbered with rock. The fringing coral reef has a wide passage in the southwest. The closest land is Takamaka Island in the Salomon Islands Atoll, about 20 kilometres to the southwest.
The Great Chagos Bank, in the Chagos Archipelago, about 500 km (310 mi) south of Maldives, is the largest atoll structure in the world, with a total area of 12,642 km2 (4,881 sq mi). The atoll is administered by the United Kingdom through the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).
Benares Shoals, or Benares Shoal, is a submerged coral reef, an isolated patch located at 5°15′S071°40′E, just 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) west-northwest of Île Pierre, the closest island of Peros Banhos atoll in the northern Chagos Archipelago. It measures about 3 kilometres (2 mi) east–west, with a width of about 700 metres (2,300 ft) and an area of 2 square kilometres (0.77 sq mi). The least depth at the western end is 4.5 metres (15 ft).
Victory Bank is a wholly submerged atoll structure in the Northern Chagos Archipelago at 5°33′S72°14′E. It is located 17 kilometres NNW of Nelson Island, the only island on the northern rim of the Great Chagos Bank. Île Boddam, of the Salomon Islands, lies 17 kilometres to the north.
The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia. The territory comprises the seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 individual islands, many very small, amounting to a total land area of 60 square kilometres. The largest and most southerly island is Diego Garcia, 27 square kilometres, the site of a Joint Military Facility of the United Kingdom and the United States. Official administration is remote from London, though the local capital is often regarded as being on Diego Garcia.
Sea Cow Island, also known as Île Vache Marine, is a round 18 ha island on the Great Chagos Bank atoll of the Chagos Archipelago in the British Indian Ocean Territory.
The Chagos Marine Protected Area, located in the central Indian Ocean in the British Indian Ocean Territory of the United Kingdom, is one of the world's largest officially designated marine protected areas, and one of the largest protected areas of any type on Earth. It was established by the British government on 1 April 2010 as a massive, contiguous, marine reserve, it encompasses 640,000 square kilometres (250,000 sq mi) of ocean waters, including roughly 70 small islands and seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago.
06°09′S71°31′E / 6.150°S 71.517°E
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