1.
12-hour clock
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The 12-hour clock is a time convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods, a. m. and p. m. Each period consists of 12 hours numbered,12,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, and 11. The 24 hour/day cycle starts at 12 midnight, runs through 12 noon, the 12-hour clock was developed over time from the mid-second millennium BC to the 16th century AD. The natural day- and night division of a calendar day forms the basis as to why each day is split into two cycles. Originally there were two cycles, one cycle which could be tracked by the position of the Sun followed by one cycle which could be tracked by the Moon and this would eventually evolve into the two 12-hour periods that started at midnight and noon which are used today. Noon itself is rarely abbreviated today, but if it is, the 12-hour clock can be traced back as far as Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. Both an Egyptian sundial for daytime use and an Egyptian water clock for night-time use were found in the tomb of Pharaoh Amenhotep I, dating to c.1500 BC, these clocks divided their respective times of use into 12 hours each. The Romans also used a 12-hour clock, daylight was divided into 12 equal hours, in Northern Europe these dials generally used the 12-hour numbering scheme in Roman numerals, but showed both a. m. and p. m. periods in sequence. This is known as the system, and can be seen on many surviving clock faces, such as those at Wells. Elsewhere in Europe, particularly in Italy, numbering was more likely to be based on the 24-hour system, the 12-hour clock was used throughout the British empire. During the 15th and 16th centuries, the 12-hour analog dial, the 24-hour analog dial was reserved for more specialized applications, such as astronomical clocks and chronometers. Most analog clocks and watches use the 12-hour dial, on which the shorter hour hand rotates once every 12 hours. Some analog clock dials have a ring of numbers along with the standard 1-to-12 numbered ring. The number 12 is paired either with a 00 or a 24, while the numbers 1 through 11 are paired with the numbers 13 through 23 and this modification allows the clock to be read also in the 24-hour notation. This kind of 12-hour clock can be found in countries where the 24-hour clock is preferred, in several countries the 12-hour clock is the dominant written and spoken system of time. Other countries use the 12-hour clock mainly in spoken time, while the 24-hour notation is written, in most countries the 12-hour clock is used in speech alongside the 24-hour clock. The 12-hour clock in speech often uses such as in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening. Outside of English-speaking countries, the terms a. m. and p. m. are seldom used and often unknown
2.
Meridian (geography)
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A meridian is the half of an imaginary great circle on the Earths surface, terminated by the North Pole and the South Pole, connecting points of equal longitude. The position of a point along the meridian is given by its latitude indicating how many degrees north or south of the Equator the point is, each meridian is perpendicular to all circles of latitude. Each is also the length, being half of a great circle on the Earths surface. Most maps show the lines of longitude, the position of the prime meridian has changed a few times throughout history, mainly due to the transit observatory being built next door to the previous one. Such changes had no significant practical effect, historically, the average error in the determination of longitude was much larger than the change in position. The adoption of WGS84 as the system has moved the geodetic prime meridian 102.478 metres east of its last astronomic position. The position of the current geodetic prime meridian is not identified at all by any kind of sign or marking in Greenwich, but can be located using a GPS receiver. The term meridian comes from the Latin meridies, meaning midday, the same Latin stem gives rise to the terms a. m. and p. m. used to disambiguate hours of the day when utilizing the 12-hour clock. Therefore, a compass needle will be parallel to the magnetic meridian, the angle between the magnetic and the true meridian is the magnetic declination, which is relevant for navigating with a compass. Searchable PDF prepared by the author, C. A. White, resources page of the U. S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management Meridian
3.
Prime meridian
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A prime meridian is a meridian in a geographical coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. Together, a meridian and its antimeridian form a great circle. This great circle divides the sphere, e. g. the Earth, if one uses directions of East and West from a defined prime meridian, then they can be called Eastern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere. The most widely used modern meridian is the IERS Reference Meridian and it is derived but deviates slightly from the Greenwich Meridian, which was selected as an international standard in 1884. The notion of longitude was developed by the Greek Eratosthenes in Alexandria, and Hipparchus in Rhodes, but it was Ptolemy who first used a consistent meridian for a world map in his Geographia. The main point is to be comfortably west of the tip of Africa as negative numbers were not yet in use. His prime meridian corresponds to 18°40 west of Winchester today, at that time the chief method of determining longitude was by using the reported times of lunar eclipses in different countries. Ptolemys Geographia was first printed with maps at Bologna in 1477, but there was still a hope that a natural basis for a prime meridian existed. The Tordesillas line was settled at 370 leagues west of Cape Verde. This is shown in Diogo Ribeiros 1529 map, in 1541, Mercator produced his famous 41 cm terrestrial globe and drew his prime meridian precisely through Fuertaventura in the Canaries. His later maps used the Azores, following the magnetic hypothesis, but by the time that Ortelius produced the first modern atlas in 1570, other islands such as Cape Verde were coming into use. In his atlas longitudes were counted from 0° to 360°, not 180°W to 180°E as is usual today and this practice was followed by navigators well into the 18th century. In 1634, Cardinal Richelieu used the westernmost island of the Canaries, Ferro, 19°55 west of Paris, the geographer Delisle decided to round this off to 20°, so that it simply became the meridian of Paris disguised. In the early 18th century the battle was on to improve the determination of longitude at sea, between 1765 and 1811, Nevil Maskelyne published 49 issues of the Nautical Almanac based on the meridian of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Maskelynes tables not only made the lunar method practicable, they made the Greenwich meridian the universal reference point. In 1884, at the International Meridian Conference in Washington, D. C.22 countries voted to adopt the Greenwich meridian as the meridian of the world. The French argued for a line, mentioning the Azores and the Bering Strait. In October 1884 the Greenwich Meridian was selected by delegates to the International Meridian Conference held in Washington, united States to be the common zero of longitude and standard of time reckoning throughout the world
4.
Great circle
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A great circle, also known as an orthodrome or Riemannian circle, of a sphere is the intersection of the sphere and a plane that passes through the center point of the sphere. This partial case of a circle of a sphere is opposed to a circle, the intersection of the sphere. Any diameter of any great circle coincides with a diameter of the sphere, and therefore all great circles have the same circumference as each other, a great circle is the largest circle that can be drawn on any given sphere. Every circle in Euclidean 3-space is a circle of exactly one sphere. For most pairs of points on the surface of a sphere, there is a great circle through the two points. The exception is a pair of points, for which there are infinitely many great circles. The minor arc of a circle between two points is the shortest surface-path between them. In this sense, the arc is analogous to “straight lines” in Euclidean geometry. The length of the arc of a great circle is taken as the distance between two points on a surface of a sphere in Riemannian geometry. The great circles are the geodesics of the sphere, in higher dimensions, the great circles on the n-sphere are the intersection of the n-sphere with 2-planes that pass through the origin in the Euclidean space Rn+1. To prove that the arc of a great circle is the shortest path connecting two points on the surface of a sphere, one can apply calculus of variations to it. Consider the class of all paths from a point p to another point q. Introduce spherical coordinates so that p coincides with the north pole. Any curve on the sphere that does not intersect either pole, except possibly at the endpoints, can be parametrized by θ = θ, ϕ = ϕ, a ≤ t ≤ b provided we allow φ to take on arbitrary real values. The infinitesimal arc length in these coordinates is d s = r θ ′2 + ϕ ′2 sin 2 θ d t. So the length of a curve γ from p to q is a functional of the curve given by S = r ∫ a b θ ′2 + ϕ ′2 sin 2 θ d t. Note that S is at least the length of the meridian from p to q, S ≥ r ∫ a b | θ ′ | d t ≥ r | θ − θ |. Since the starting point and ending point are fixed, S is minimized if and only if φ =0, so the curve must lie on a meridian of the sphere φ = φ0 = constant
5.
Eastern Hemisphere
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The Eastern Hemisphere is a geographical term for the half of the earth that is east of the prime meridian and west of the antimeridian. It is also used to refer to Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, in contrast with the Western Hemisphere and this hemisphere may also be called the Oriental Hemisphere. In addition, it may be used in a cultural or geopolitical sense as a synonym for the Old World, the line demarcating the Eastern and Western Hemispheres is an arbitrary convention, unlike the Equator which divides the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The prime meridian at 0° longitude and the antimeridian, at 180° longitude are the accepted boundaries. Prior to the adoption of standard time, numerous prime meridians were decreed by various countries where time was defined by local noon. The center of the Eastern Hemisphere is located in the Indian Ocean at the intersection of the equator, the land mass of the Eastern Hemisphere is larger than that of the Western Hemisphere and has a wide variety of habitats. 82% of humans live in the Eastern Hemisphere, compared to 18% in Western Hemisphere, media related to Eastern Hemisphere at Wikimedia Commons
6.
Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations
7.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
8.
Fiji
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Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about 1,100 nautical miles northeast of New Zealands North Island. Fiji is an archipelago of more than 330 islands, of which 110 are permanently inhabited, the two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, account for 87% of the population of almost 860,000. The capital, Suva on Viti Levu, serves as Fijis principal cruise port, about three-quarters of Fijians live on Viti Levus coasts, either in Suva or in smaller urban centres like Nadi or Lautoka. Viti Levus interior is sparsely inhabited due to its terrain, Fiji has one of the most developed economies in the Pacific due to an abundance of forest, mineral, and fish resources. Today, the sources of foreign exchange are its tourist industry. The countrys currency is the Fijian dollar, Fijis local government, in the form of city and town councils, is supervised by the Ministry of Local Government and Urban Development. The majority of Fijis islands were formed through volcanic activity starting around 150 million years ago, today, some geothermal activity still occurs on the islands of Vanua Levu and Taveuni. Fiji has been inhabited since the second millennium BC, and was settled first by Austronesians and later by Melanesians, Europeans visited Fiji from the 17th century, and, after a brief period as an independent kingdom, the British established the Colony of Fiji in 1874. Fiji was a Crown colony until 1970, when it gained independence as a Commonwealth realm, a republic was declared in 1987, following a series of coups détat. In a coup in 2006, Commodore Frank Bainimarama seized power, later in 2009, Iloilo was replaced as President by Ratu Epeli Nailatikau. After years of delays, an election was held on 17 September 2014. Bainimaramas FijiFirst party won with 59. 2% of the vote, Fijis main island is known as Viti Levu and it is from this that the name Fiji is derived, though the common English pronunciation is based on that of their island neighbours in Tonga. Its emergence can be described as follows, Fijians first impressed themselves on European consciousness through the writings of the members of the expeditions of Cook who met them in Tonga. They were described as warriors and ferocious cannibals, builders of the finest vessels in the Pacific. They inspired awe amongst the Tongans, and all their Manufactures, especially bark cloth and clubs, were highly valued and much in demand. They called their home Viti, but the Tongans called it Fisi, and it was by this foreign pronunciation, Fiji, first promulgated by Captain James Cook, that these islands are now known. Feejee, the Anglicised spelling of the Tongan pronunciation, was used in accounts and other writings until the late 19th century, by missionaries and other travellers visiting Fiji. Pottery art from Fijian towns shows that Fiji was settled before or around 3500 to 1000 BC, the first settlements in Fiji were started by voyaging traders and settlers from the west about 5000 years ago
9.
Antarctica
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It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14,000,000 square kilometres, it is the fifth-largest continent, for comparison, Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages 1.9 km in thickness, Antarctica, on average, is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents. Antarctica is a desert, with precipitation of only 200 mm along the coast. The temperature in Antarctica has reached −89.2 °C, though the average for the quarter is −63 °C. Anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at the research stations scattered across the continent. Organisms native to Antarctica include many types of algae, bacteria, fungi, plants, protista, vegetation, where it occurs, is tundra. The continent, however, remained neglected for the rest of the 19th century because of its hostile environment, lack of easily accessible resources. In 1895, the first confirmed landing was conducted by a team of Norwegians, Antarctica is a de facto condominium, governed by parties to the Antarctic Treaty System that have consulting status. Twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959, and thirty-eight have signed it since then, the treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining, prohibits nuclear explosions and nuclear waste disposal, supports scientific research, and protects the continents ecozone. Ongoing experiments are conducted by more than 4,000 scientists from many nations, the name Antarctica is the romanised version of the Greek compound word ἀνταρκτική, feminine of ἀνταρκτικός, meaning opposite to the Arctic, opposite to the north. Aristotle wrote in his book Meteorology about an Antarctic region in c.350 B. C, marinus of Tyre reportedly used the name in his unpreserved world map from the 2nd century A. D. Before acquiring its present geographical connotations, the term was used for locations that could be defined as opposite to the north. For example, the short-lived French colony established in Brazil in the 16th century was called France Antarctique, the first formal use of the name Antarctica as a continental name in the 1890s is attributed to the Scottish cartographer John George Bartholomew. Antarctica has no population and there is no evidence that it was seen by humans until the 19th century. Explorer Matthew Flinders, in particular, has credited with popularising the transfer of the name Terra Australis to Australia. Cook came within about 120 km of the Antarctic coast before retreating in the face of ice in January 1773. The first confirmed sighting of Antarctica can be narrowed down to the crews of ships captained by three individuals, according to various organisations, ships captained by three men sighted Antarctica or its ice shelf in 1820, von Bellingshausen, Edward Bransfield, and Nathaniel Palmer
10.
International Date Line
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The International Date Line is an imaginary line of navigation on the surface of the Earth that runs from the North Pole to the South Pole and demarcates the change of one calendar day to the next. It passes through the middle of the Pacific Ocean, roughly following the 180° line of longitude but deviating to pass around some territories and this description is based on the most common understanding of the de facto International Date Line. See § De facto and de jure date lines below, the IDL is roughly based on the meridian of 180° longitude, roughly down the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and halfway around the world from the Greenwich meridian. In many places, the IDL follows the 180° meridian exactly, in other places, however, the IDL deviates east or west away from that meridian. These various deviations generally accommodate the political and/or economic affiliations of the affected areas, proceeding from north to south, the first deviation of the IDL from 180° is to pass to the east of Wrangel Island and the Chukchi Peninsula, the easternmost part of Russian Siberia. It then passes through the Bering Strait between the Diomede Islands at a distance of 1.5 kilometres from each island at 168°5837 W and it then bends considerably west of 180°, passing west of St. Lawrence Island and St. Matthew Island. The IDL crosses between the U. S. Aleutian Islands and the Commander Islands, which belong to Russia and it then bends southeast again to return to 180°. Thus, all of Russia is to the west of the IDL, and all of the United States is to the east except for the areas of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands. The IDL remains on the 180° meridian until passing the equator, two US-owned uninhabited atolls, Howland Island and Baker Island, just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean, have the latest time on Earth. The IDL circumscribes Kiribati by swinging far to the east, almost reaching the 150°W meridian, kiribatis easternmost islands, the southern Line Islands south of Hawaii, have the most advanced time on Earth, UTC+14 hours. South of Kiribati, the IDL returns westwards but remains east of 180°, in much of this area, the IDL follows the 165°W meridian. Accordingly, Samoa, Tokelau, Wallis and Futuna, Fiji, Tonga, Tuvalu and New Zealands Kermadec Islands, American Samoa, the Cook Islands, Niue, and French Polynesia are east of the IDL and one day behind. The IDL then bends southwest to return to 180° and it follows that meridian until reaching Antarctica, which has multiple time zones. Conventionally, the IDL is not drawn into Antarctica on most maps, in contrast, a west-to-east circumnavigation of the globe loses an hour for every 15° of longitude crossed but gains back a day when crossing the IDL. The IDL must therefore be observed in conjunction with the Earths time zones, on crossing it in either direction, the calendar date is adjusted by one day. For the two hours between 10,00 and 11,59 UTC each day, three different calendar dates are observed at the time in different places on Earth. For example, at 10,15 UTC Thursday, it is 23,15 Wednesday in American Samoa, Thursday in most of the world, during the first hour, all three calendar dates include inhabited places. During the second one of the calendar dates is limited to an uninhabited maritime time zone twelve hours behind UTC
11.
North Pole
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The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is defined as the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earths axis of rotation meets its surface. The North Pole is the northernmost point on the Earth, lying diametrically opposite the South Pole and it defines geodetic latitude 90° North, as well as the direction of true north. At the North Pole all directions point south, all lines of longitude converge there, along tight latitude circles, counterclockwise is east and clockwise is west. The North Pole is at the center of the Northern Hemisphere, while the South Pole lies on a continental land mass, the North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean amid waters that are almost permanently covered with constantly shifting sea ice. This makes it impractical to construct a permanent station at the North Pole, however, the Soviet Union, and later Russia, constructed a number of manned drifting stations on a generally annual basis since 1937, some of which have passed over or very close to the Pole. Since 2002, the Russians have also established a base, Barneo. This operates for a few weeks during early spring, studies in the 2000s predicted that the North Pole may become seasonally ice-free because of Arctic ice shrinkage, with timescales varying from 2016 to the late 21st century or later. The sea depth at the North Pole has been measured at 4,261 m by the Russian Mir submersible in 2007 and at 4,087 m by USS Nautilus in 1958. The nearest land is said to be Kaffeklubben Island, off the northern coast of Greenland about 700 km away. The nearest permanently inhabited place is Alert in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada, around the beginning of the 20th century astronomers noticed a small apparent variation of latitude, as determined for a fixed point on Earth from the observation of stars. Part of this variation could be attributed to a wandering of the Pole across the Earths surface, the wandering has several periodic components and an irregular component. The component with a period of about 435 days is identified with the eight-month wandering predicted by Euler and is now called the Chandler wobble after its discoverer and it is desirable to tie the system of Earth coordinates to fixed landforms. Of course, given plate tectonics and isostasy, there is no system in all geographic features are fixed. Yet the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service and the International Astronomical Union have defined a framework called the International Terrestrial Reference System. As early as the 16th century, many eminent people correctly believed that the North Pole was in a sea and it was therefore hoped that passage could be found through ice floes at favorable times of the year. Several expeditions set out to find the way, generally with whaling ships, one of the earliest expeditions to set out with the explicit intention of reaching the North Pole was that of British naval officer William Edward Parry, who in 1827 reached latitude 82°45′ North. In 1871 the Polaris expedition, a US attempt on the Pole led by Charles Francis Hall, another British Royal Navy attempt on the pole, part of the British Arctic Expedition, by Commander Albert H. Markham reached a then-record 83°2026 North in May 1876 before turning back. An 1879–1881 expedition commanded by US naval officer George W. DeLong ended tragically when their ship, over half the crew, including DeLong, were lost
12.
South Pole
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The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earths axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth, situated on the continent of Antarctica, it is the site of the United States Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, which was established in 1956 and has been permanently staffed since that year. The Geographic South Pole should not be confused with the South Magnetic Pole, the South Pole is at the center of the Southern Hemisphere. For most purposes, the Geographic South Pole is defined as the point of the two points where the Earths axis of rotation intersects its surface. However, the Earths axis of rotation is actually subject to very small wobbles, the geographic coordinates of the South Pole are usually given simply as 90°S, since its longitude is geometrically undefined and irrelevant. When a longitude is desired, it may be given as 0°, at the South Pole, all directions face north. For this reason, directions at the Pole are given relative to grid north, along tight latitude circles, clockwise is east, and counterclockwise is west, opposite to the North Pole. The Geographic South Pole is located on the continent of Antarctica. It sits atop a featureless, barren, windswept and icy plateau at an altitude of 2,835 metres above sea level, and is located about 1,300 km from the nearest open sea at Bay of Whales. The ice is estimated to be about 2,700 metres thick at the Pole, the polar ice sheet is moving at a rate of roughly 10 metres per year in a direction between 37° and 40° west of grid north, down towards the Weddell Sea. Therefore, the position of the station and other artificial features relative to the geographic pole gradually shift over time. The Geographic South Pole is marked by a stake in the ice alongside a small sign, these are repositioned each year in a ceremony on New Years Day to compensate for the movement of the ice. The sign records the respective dates that Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott reached the Pole, followed by a quotation from each man. A new marker stake is designed and fabricated each year by staff at the site, the Ceremonial South Pole is an area set aside for photo opportunities at the South Pole Station. It is located around 180 metres from the Geographic South Pole, Amundsens Tent, The tent was erected by the Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen on its arrival on 14 December 1911. It is currently buried beneath the snow and ice in the vicinity of the Pole and it has been designated a Historic Site or Monument, following a proposal by Norway to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. In 1820, several expeditions claimed to have been the first to have sighted Antarctica, with the very first being the Russian expedition led by Faddey Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev. The first landing was probably just over a year later when American Captain John Davis, the basic geography of the Antarctic coastline was not understood until the mid-to-late 19th century
13.
Arctic Ocean
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The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the worlds five major oceans. Alternatively, the Arctic Ocean can be seen as the northernmost part of the all-encompassing World Ocean, located mostly in the Arctic north polar region in the middle of the Northern Hemisphere, the Arctic Ocean is almost completely surrounded by Eurasia and North America. It is partly covered by sea ice throughout the year and almost completely in winter, the summer shrinking of the ice has been quoted at 50%. The US National Snow and Ice Data Center uses satellite data to provide a record of Arctic sea ice cover. The Arctic may become ice free for the first time in human history within a few years or by 2040, for much of European history, the north polar regions remained largely unexplored and their geography conjectural. He was probably describing loose sea ice known today as growlers or bergy bits, his Thule was probably Norway, early cartographers were unsure whether to draw the region around the North Pole as land or water. The makers of navigational charts, more conservative than some of the more fanciful cartographers, tended to leave the region blank and this lack of knowledge of what lay north of the shifting barrier of ice gave rise to a number of conjectures. In England and other European nations, the myth of an Open Polar Sea was persistent, john Barrow, longtime Second Secretary of the British Admiralty, promoted exploration of the region from 1818 to 1845 in search of this. In the United States in the 1850s and 1860s, the explorers Elisha Kane, even quite late in the century, the eminent authority Matthew Fontaine Maury included a description of the Open Polar Sea in his textbook The Physical Geography of the Sea. Nevertheless, as all the explorers who travelled closer and closer to the reported, the polar ice cap is quite thick. Fridtjof Nansen was the first to make a crossing of the Arctic Ocean. The first surface crossing of the ocean was led by Wally Herbert in 1969, in a dog sled expedition from Alaska to Svalbard, with air support. The first nautical transit of the pole was made in 1958 by the submarine USS Nautilus. Since 1937, Soviet and Russian manned drifting ice stations have extensively monitored the Arctic Ocean, scientific settlements were established on the drift ice and carried thousands of kilometres by ice floes. In World War II, the European region of the Arctic Ocean was heavily contested, the Arctic Ocean occupies a roughly circular basin and covers an area of about 14,056,000 km2, almost the size of Antarctica. The coastline is 45,390 km long and it is surrounded by the land masses of Eurasia, North America, Greenland, and by several islands. It is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Bering Strait and to the Atlantic Ocean through the Greenland Sea, countries bordering the Arctic Ocean are, Russia, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Canada and the United States. There are several ports and harbours around the Arctic Ocean In Alaska, in Canada, ships may anchor at Churchill in Manitoba, Nanisivik in Nunavut, Tuktoyaktuk or Inuvik in the Northwest territories
14.
Chukotka Autonomous Okrug
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Chukotka Autonomous Okrug or Chukotka is a federal subject of Russia in the Russian Far East. The population was recorded at 50,526 in the 2010 Census, the autonomous okrugs surface area is 737,700 square kilometers. The principal town and the center is Anadyr. The region is the most northeasterly region of Russia and, since the sale of Alaska to the United States, has been the part of Russia lying partially in the Western Hemisphere. Elgygytgyn Lake, a crater lake, is located in Chukotka, as is the village of Uelen. The Chukchi Peninsula projects eastward forming the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska, and encloses the north side of the Gulf of Anadyr, the peninsulas easternmost point, Cape Dezhnev, is also the easternmost point of mainland Russia. Ecologically, Chukotka can be divided into three areas, the northern Arctic desert, the central tundra, and the taiga in the south. About half of its area is above the Arctic Circle and this area is very mountainous, containing the Chukotsky Mountains and the Anadyr Range. Chukotkas rivers spring from its northern and central mountains, the major rivers are, Anadyr River, with tributaries Belaya, Tanyurer, and Velikaya Rivers, flowing east to the Gulf of Anadyr. Omolon and the Great and Little Anyuy Rivers that flow west into the Kolyma River in Yakutia, rauchua, Chaun, Palyavaam, Pegtymel, Chegitun and Amguyema Rivers that flow north into the arctic seas. The largest lakes are Lake Krasnoye, west of Anadyr, large parts of Chukotka are covered with moss, lichen, and arctic plants, similar to western Alaska. Surrounding the Gulf of Anadyr and in the river valleys grow small larch, pine, birch, poplar, more than 900 species of plants grow in Chukotka, including 400 species of moss and lichen. It is home to 220 bird species and 30 fresh water fish species, chukotkas climate is influenced by its location on the three neighboring seas, the Bering Sea, the East Siberian Sea, and the Chukchi Sea. The weather is characterized by cold winds that can quickly change to wet southern winds. Cape Navarin has the highest number of hurricanes and storms in Russia, the coastal areas are windy with little precipitation, between 200 and 400 mm per year. Temperature varies from −15 °C to −35 °C in January and from +5 °C to +14 °C in July, growing season is short, only 80 to 100 days per year. The first inhabitants were Paleo-Siberian hunters who came to Chukotka from Central, the area was then part of the Beringia land bridge that is believed to have enabled human migration to the Americas. Traditionally Chukotka was the home of the native Chukchi people, Siberian Yupiks, Koryaks, Chuvans, Evens/Lamuts, Yukaghirs, and Russian Old Settlers
15.
Wrangel Island
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Wrangel Island is an island in the Arctic Ocean, between the Chukchi Sea and East Siberian Sea. Wrangel Island lies astride the 180° meridian, the International Date Line is displaced eastwards at this latitude to avoid the island as well as the Chukchi Peninsula on the Russian mainland. The closest land to Wrangel Island is tiny and rocky Herald Island located 60 km to the east, the distance to the closest point on the mainland is 140 km. Wrangel Island may have been the last place on earth where mammoths survived, nearly all of Wrangel Island, and Herald Island, are a federally protected nature sanctuary administered by Russias Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The Chukotka Regional government extended the marine protected area out to 24 nautical miles in 1999, as of 2003, there were four rangers who reside on the island year-round. In addition a group of about 12 scientists conduct research during the summer months. Wrangel Island is about 125 km wide and 7,600 km2 in area and it consists of a southern coastal plain that is as wide as 15 km, a central belt of low-relief mountains, and a northern coastal plain that is as wide as 25 km. The east-west trending central mountain belt, the Tsentralnye Mountain Range, is as much as 40 km wide and 145 km long from coast to coast, typically, the mountains are a little over 500 m above mean sea level. The highest mountain on this island is Sovetskaya Mountain with an elevation of 1,096 m above sea level. The east-west trending mountain range terminates at sea cliffs at either end of the island, Wrangel Island belongs administratively to the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of the Russian Federation. This rocky island has a station and, formerly, two Chukchi fishing settlements on the southern side of the island. Wrangel Island consists of folded, faulted, and metamorphosed volcanic, intrusive and these rocks are intruded by metamorphosed gabbro, diabase, and felsic dikes and sills and granite intrusions. The uppermost stratum consists of 0.7 to 1.5 km of Triassic clayish quartzose turbidites interbedded with black slate, a thin veneer of Cenozoic gravel, sand, clay and mud underlie the coastal plains of Wrangel Island. Late Neogene clay and gravel, which are only a few tens of meters thick, indurated Pliocene mud and gravel, which are only a few meters thick, overlie the Late Neogene sediments. Sandy Pleistocene sediments occur as fluvial sediments along rivers and streams and as a very thin, Wrangel Island is a breeding ground for polar bears, seals, walrus, and lemmings. During the summer it is visited by many types of birds, Arctic foxes also make their home on the island. Cetaceans such as whales, gray whales, and belugas can be seen close to shore. Woolly mammoths survived there until 2500–2000 BC, the most recent survival of all known mammoth populations, isolated from the mainland for 6000 years, about 500 to 1000 mammoths lived on the island at a time
16.
Chukchi Sea
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Chukchi Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, the Bering Strait forms its southernmost limit and connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The principal port on the Chukchi Sea is Uelen in Russia, the International Date Line crosses the Chukchi Sea from northwest to southeast. It is displaced eastwards to avoid Wrangel Island as well as the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug on the Russian mainland, the sea has an approximate area of 595,000 km2 and is only navigable about four months of the year. The main geological feature of the Chukchi Sea bottom is the 700-kilometre-long Hope Basin, depths less than 50 meters occupy 56% of the total area. The Chukchi Sea has very few compared to other seas of the Arctic. Wrangel Island lies at the limit of the sea, Herald Island is located near its northern limit. The sea is named after the Chukchi people, who reside on its shores, the coastal Chukchi traditionally engaged in fishing, whaling and the hunting of walrus in this cold sea. In Alaska, the rivers flowing into the Chukchi Sea are the Kivalina, the Kobuk, the Kokolik, the Kukpowruk, the Kukpuk, the Noatak, the Utukok, the Pitmegea, and the Wulik, among others. Of rivers flowing in from its Siberian side, the Amguyema, Ioniveyem, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Chuckchi Sea as follows, On the West. The Eastern limit of East Siberian Sea, a line from Point Barrow, Alaska to the Northernmost point of Wrangel Island. The Arctic Circle between Siberia and Alaska, common usage is that the southern extent is further south at the narrowest part of the Bering Strait which is on the 66th parallel north. The Chukchi Sea Shelf is the westernmost part of the shelf of the United States. Within this shelf, the 50-mile Chukchi Corridor acts as a passageway for one of the largest marine mammal migrations in the world, in 1728, Vitus Bering and in 1779, Captain James Cook entered the sea from the Pacific. Since further progress for that year was impossible, the ship was secured in winter quarters, even so, members of the expedition and the crew were aware only a few miles of ice-blocked sea lay between them and the open waters. The following year, two days after Vega was released, she passed the Bering Strait and steamed towards the Pacific Ocean. In 1913, Karluk, abandoned by expedition leader Vilhjalmur Stefansson, drifted in the ice along the northern expanses of the Chukchi Sea and sank, the survivors made it to Wrangel Island, where they found themselves in a hopeless situation. Then Captain Robert Bartlett walked hundreds of kilometers with Kataktovik, an Inuit man and they reached Cape Vankarem on the Chukotka coast, on April 15,1914
17.
Bering Sea
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The Bering Sea is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It comprises a deep basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves. The Bering Sea is separated from the Gulf of Alaska by the Alaska Peninsula, Bristol Bay is the portion of the Bering Sea which separates the Alaska Peninsula from mainland Alaska. The Bering Sea ecosystem includes resources within the jurisdiction of the United States and Russia, the interaction between currents, sea ice, and weather makes for a vigorous and productive ecosystem. Most scientists believe that during the most recent ice age, sea level was low enough to humans to migrate east on foot from Asia to North America across what is now the Bering Strait. Other animals including megafauna migrated in both directions and this is commonly referred to as the Bering land bridge and is believed by most, though not all scientists, to be the first point of entry of humans into the Americas. There is a portion of the Kula Plate in the Bering Sea. The Kula Plate is an ancient tectonic plate that used to subduct under Alaska, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Bering Sea as follows, On the North. The Southern limit of the Chuckchi Sea, Islands of the Bering Sea include, Pribilof Islands, including St. Paul Island Komandorski Islands, including Bering Island St. Lawrence Island Diomede Islands King Island St. The Bering Sea shelf break is the dominant driver of productivity in the Bering Sea. This zone, where the continental shelf drops off into the North Aleutians Basin is also known as the “Greenbelt”. Nutrient upwelling from the waters of the Aleutian basin flowing up the slope. The second driver of productivity in the Bering Sea is seasonal sea ice that, in part, seasonal melting of sea ice causes an influx of lower salinity water into the middle and other shelf areas, causing stratification and hydrographic effects which influence productivity. In addition to the hydrographic and productivity influence of melting sea ice, some evidence suggests that great changes to the Bering Sea ecosystem have already occurred. Warm water conditions in the summer of 1997 resulted in a bloom of low energy coccolithophorid phytoplankton. A long record of carbon isotopes, which is reflective of primary trends of the Bering Sea. Trends in carbon isotope ratios in whale baleen samples suggest that a 30–40% decline in average seasonal primary productivity has occurred over the last 50 years, the implication is that the carrying capacity of the Bering Sea is much lower now than it has been in the past. Other marine mammals include walrus, Steller sea lion, northern fur seal, orca, the Bering Sea is very important to the seabirds of the world
18.
Semisopochnoi Island
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Semisopochnoi Island or Unyak Island is part of the Rat Islands group in the western Aleutian Islands of Alaska. The island is uninhabited and provides an important nesting area for maritime birds, the island is of volcanic origin, containing several volcanoes including Mount Cerberus. It has an area of 85.558 square miles. At 179°46 East, the easternmost tip of Semisopochnoi is, by longitude, Semisopochnoi sits only 14 minutes west of the 180th meridian. Semisopochnoi has no land mammals. Arctic foxes were introduced to the island during the 19th century for fur farming, most ground-nesting bird species and most burrow-nesting seabirds were extirpated by foxes, Semisopochnoi Island is currently in the early stages of recovery. The island has remained free of Norway rats, the large least and crested auklet colony near Sugarloaf Head is one of the largest among the nine auklet colonies in the Aleutian Islands. Crested auklets and least auklets breed in one colony, located on the facing slopes of Sugarloaf Peak volcano. Semisopochnoi Island also supports a significant population of red-faced cormorants, in total, Semisopochnoi supports well over a million seabirds, most of which are least auklets or crested auklets. The high point of the island is 1,221 meter Anvil Peak, the three-peaked, 774-meter high Mount Cerberus is a volcano within the caldera. Each of the peaks contains a crater, lava flows on the northern flank of Cerberus appear younger than those on the southern side. Most documented historical eruptions have originated from Cerberus, although Coats considered that both Sugarloaf and Lakeshore Cone within the caldera could have been active during historical time, semisophochois last known volcanic eruption was in April 1987. A historic eruption of Semisopochnoi was reported in 1873, and at least four others may have occurred in the hundred years. These eruptions apparently emanated from the flanks of Mount Cerberus, the most recent flow appears to be less than a century old, Cape St. Charles at 55°37 West on the Labrador Peninsula is the easternmost point of mainland North America. Cape Spear is the easternmost location relative to the center of North America if Greenland is excluded because it is not politically part of North America. For this and other reasons, Cape Spear is traditionally considered to be the easternmost location in North America, the locations within the territory of the Aleutian Islands which lie exactly on the 180th meridian are by longitude simultaneously the most westerly and most easterly points of the United States. Semisopochnoi Photos Photographs from Semisopochnoi Island, July 2008
19.
Alaska
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Alaska is a U. S. state located in the northwest extremity of North America. To the north are the Chukchi and Beaufort seas–the southern parts of the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean lies to the south and southwest. Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area, the 3rd least populous, approximately half of Alaskas residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area. Alaskas economy is dominated by the fishing, natural gas, military bases and tourism are also a significant part of the economy. The United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire on March 30,1867, the area went through several administrative changes before becoming organized as a territory on May 11,1912. It was admitted as the 49th state of the U. S. on January 3,1959, the name Alaska was introduced in the Russian colonial period when it was used to refer to the peninsula. It was derived from an Aleut, or Unangam idiom, which refers to the mainland of Alaska. Literally, it means object to which the action of the sea is directed, Alaska is the northernmost and westernmost state in the United States and has the most easterly longitude in the United States because the Aleutian Islands extend into the Eastern Hemisphere. Alaska is the only non-contiguous U. S. state on continental North America and it is technically part of the continental U. S. but is sometimes not included in colloquial use, Alaska is not part of the contiguous U. S. often called the Lower 48. The capital city, Juneau, is situated on the mainland of the North American continent but is not connected by road to the rest of the North American highway system. Alaskas territorial waters touch Russias territorial waters in the Bering Strait, as the Russian Big Diomede Island, Alaska has a longer coastline than all the other U. S. states combined. Alaska is the largest state in the United States by total area at 663,268 square miles, over twice the size of Texas, Alaska is larger than all but 18 sovereign countries. Counting territorial waters, Alaska is larger than the area of the next three largest states, Texas, California, and Montana. It is also larger than the area of the 22 smallest U. S. states. Also referred to as the Panhandle or Inside Passage, this is the region of Alaska closest to the rest of the United States, as such, this was where most of the initial non-indigenous settlement occurred in the years following the Alaska Purchase. The region is dominated by the Alexander Archipelago as well as the Tongass National Forest and it contains the state capital Juneau, the former capital Sitka, and Ketchikan, at one time Alaskas largest city. The Alaska Marine Highway provides a vital transportation link throughout the area. The Interior is the largest region of Alaska, much of it is uninhabited wilderness, Fairbanks is the only large city in the region
20.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
21.
Nukulaelae
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Nukulaelae is an atoll that is part of the nation of Tuvalu, and has a population of 324 the largest settlement is Pepesala on Fangaua islet with a population of 247 people. It has the form of an oval and consists of at least 15 islets, the inhabited islet is Fangaua, which is 1.5 kilometres long and 50 to 200 metres wide. The easternmost point of Tuvalu is Niuoko islet, the Nukulaelae Conservation Area covers the eastern end of the lagoon. A baseline survey of life in the conservation zone was conducted in 2010. The junior school is Faikimua Primary School, the traditional history of Nukulaelae is that a white-skinned man was the first person to sight the island, but he did not settle as there were no trees. Nukulaelae means the land of sands, later, according to tradition, Valoa from Vaitupu discovered Nukulaelae while on a fishing expedition. He returned to Nukulaelae and planted trees and eventually settled on Nukulaelae with his family. On the islet of Tumuiloto was a malae named Fagafale where religious rights honouring ancestral spirits were practiced, on the islet of Niuoka is a large stone at a place called Te Faleatua - the house of the gods. In 1821 Nukulaelae was visited by Captain George Barrett of the Nantucket whaler Independence II He named the atoll ‘Mitchell’s Group’, the population of Nukulaelae in 1860 is estimated to be 300 people. While some islander were voluntary recruits the blackbirders were notorious for enticing islanders on to ships with tricks, about 200 were taken from Nukulaelae as immediately after 1863 there were fewer than 100 of the 300 recorded in 1861 as living on Nukulaelae. In 1865 a trading captain acting on behalf of the German firm of J. C. Godeffroy & Sohn obtained a 25-year lease to the islet of Niuoko. For many years the islanders and the Germans argued over the lease, including its terms, in 1896, HMS Penguin spent two days at Nukulaelae carrying out a scientific survey of the atoll. Nukulaelae Post Office opened around 1923, the atoll was claimed by the United States under the Guano Islands Act from the 19th century until 1983, when claims to the atoll were ceded to Tuvalu. Nukulaelae is one of the eight constituencies in Tuvalu, unlike the other seven, it elects just one Member of Parliament, rather than two. Following the 2015 general election, its current representative is Namoliki Sualiki who was elected unopposed and he was first elected in 2006, defeating the then incumbent Bikenibeu Paeniu. The Tuvaluan general election,2015 was held on 31 March, Bikenibeu Paeniu, who served two terms as Prime Minister of Tuvalu &, represented Nukulaelae in the Parliament of Tuvalu from 1989 to 2006. List of Guano Island claims Suamalie N. T, iosefa, Doug Munro, Niko Besnier Tala O Niuoku, Te, the German Plantation on Nukulaelae Atoll 1865-1890 Published by the Institute of Pacific Studies
22.
Tuvalu
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It comprises three reef islands and six true atolls spread out between the latitude of 5° to 10° south and longitude of 176° to 180°, west of the International Date Line. Tuvalu has a population of 10,640, the total land area of the islands of Tuvalu is 26 square kilometres. The first inhabitants of Tuvalu were Polynesians, in 1568, Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to sail through the archipelago, sighting the island of Nui during his expedition in search of Terra Australis. In 1819 the island of Funafuti was named Ellices Island, the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay. A referendum was held in December 1974 to determine whether the Gilbert Islands, as a consequence of the referendum, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony ceased to exist on 1 January 1976 and the separate British colonies of Kiribati and Tuvalu came into existence. Tuvalu became fully independent within the Commonwealth on 1 October 1978, on 5 September 2000 Tuvalu became the 189th member of the United Nations. The origins of the people of Tuvalu are addressed in the theories regarding migration into the Pacific that began about 3000 years ago, during pre-European-contact times there was frequent canoe voyaging between the nearer islands including Samoa and Tonga. Eight of the nine islands of Tuvalu were inhabited, thus the name, Tuvalu, possible evidence of fire in the Caves of Nanumanga may indicate human occupation for thousands of years. The stories as to the ancestors of the Tuvaluans vary from island to island, on Niutao, Funafuti and Vaitupu the founding ancestor is described as being from Samoa, whereas on Nanumea the founding ancestor is described as being from Tonga. Mendaña made contact with the islanders but was unable to land, during Mendañas second voyage across the Pacific he passed Niulakita on 29 August 1595, which he named La Solitaria. Captain John Byron passed through the islands of Tuvalu in 1764 during his circumnavigation of the globe as captain of the Dolphin, Byron charted the atolls as Lagoon Islands. Chambers and Doug Munro identified Niutao as the island that Francisco Mourelle de la Rúa sailed past on 5 May 1781, mourelles map and journal named the island El Gran Cocal, however, the latitude and longitude was uncertain. Longitude could only be reckoned crudely as accurate chronometers were unavailable until the late 18th century, the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay. In 1820 the Russian explorer Mikhail Lazarev visited Nukufetau as commander of the Mirny, Louis Isidore Duperrey, captain of La Coquille, sailed past Nanumanga in May 1824 during a circumnavigation of the earth. A Dutch expedition found Nui on the morning of 14 June 1825, whalers began roving the Pacific, although visiting Tuvalu only infrequently because of the difficulties of landing on the atolls. Captain George Barrett of the Nantucket whaler Independence II has been identified as the first whaler to hunt the waters around Tuvalu, in November 1821 he bartered coconuts from the people of Nukulaelae and also visited Niulakita. A shore camp was established on Sakalua islet of Nukufetau, where coal was used to melt down the whale blubber, the Rev. A. W. Elekana began proselytising Christianity. He was trained at Malua Theological College, a London Missionary Society school in Samoa, in 1865 the Rev. A. W. Murray of the LMS – a Protestant congregationalist missionary society – arrived as the first European missionary where he too proselytised among the inhabitants of Tuvalu
23.
Vanua Levu
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Vanua Levu, formerly known as Sandalwood Island, is the second largest island of Fiji. Located 64 kilometres to the north of the larger Viti Levu, the island has an area of 5,587.1 square kilometres, geologists interpret the shape of Vanua Levu as an amalgamation of several islands that melded through successive stages of uplift. The main part of the island is shaped like a tall, thin triangle 30 to 50 kilometres in width and 180 kilometres in length. This point, the northernmost in the Fiji chain, is Udu Point, from the southeastern side of this triangle, a long peninsula stretches out into the Koro Sea. The island is surrounded by reefs, and is rough. The antimeridian passes through this island, a rugged mountain range divides the island horizontally, forming much of the boundary between the Provinces of Cakaudrove and Macuata. Vanua Levus main mountain ranges lie near the windward, southern coasts, Northern Vanua Levu, by contrast, has a dry climate eight months of the year, enabling sugar cane, the islands major crop, to thrive there. Vanua Levu has a number of rivers, including the Labasa, the Wailevu, and these three form a delta on which the town of Labasa stands. None of the rivers are navigable by large vessels. There are also well known rivers on Vanua levu. The first is the most dangerous river, the Wainikoro river, the second is the Dreketi river, the deepest river in Fiji. The islands main population centres are the towns of Labasa, in the north, Labasa, with a population of almost 25,000 at the 1996 census, has a large Indian community, and is a major centre of Fijis sugar industry. Savusavu is smaller, with a population of just under 5000, the main industry on the island is sugar cane production, especially in the north. Copra is also an important crop, tourism is now becoming a major industry on Vanua Levu also. For administrative purposes, Vanua Levu is divided into three Provinces, Bua, Macuata, and Cakaudrove and these three provinces also comprise the Northern Division of Fiji. Together with the remote Lau Islands, Vanua Levu and its outliers form the Tovata Confederacy, the Paramount Chief, who is based on the nearby island of Taveuni, holds the title of Tui Cakau. Only two population centres - Labasa and Savusavu - have been incorporated as Towns, each is governed by a Mayor and a Town Council, whose members are elected for a three-year term and choose the Mayor from among themselves. At present, normative local body governance is in abeyance, and all cities, vanau Levu was settled about 3,100 ago, with the settlers living in houses raised above the reefs on the shores
24.
Rabi Island
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Rabi is a volcanic island in northern Fiji. It is an outlier to Taveuni, in the Vanua Levu Group and it covers an area of 66.3 square kilometers, reaching a maximum altitude of 463 meters and has a shoreline of 46.2 kilometers. The original inhabitants still maintain their links to the island, Rabi has four main settlements – all named after, and populated by the descendants of, four villages on Banaba that were destroyed by the invading Japanese forces in the Second World War. Tabwewa Village, formerly known as Nuku in Fijian, is the centre of Rabi. Located in the far north of the island, Tabwewa boasts administrative buildings, a wharf, a post office, court house, a hospital,14 kilometers to the south of Tabwewa is Tabiang, the home of Rabis only school and an airstrip. Other major settlements include Uma, between Tabwewa and Tabiang, and Buakonikai, some 22 kilometers from Tabwewa, Rabi is the eighth largest island of Fiji and the antimeridian passes through this island. Rabi was the first place in Fiji where Indian indentured labourers were employed, when the first Indians were brought to Fiji abroad the Leonidas in 1879, most European planters refused to employ them because of the extra cost involved. One planter who was sympathetic to Government policies was Captain J. Hill of Rabi Island, prior to the Banaban resettlement on Rabi, the island was owned and used as a copra plantation by the Lever’s Pacific Plantations Pty Ltd. At the beginning of World War II, the British government purchased the island with phosphate royalties from Banaba, some have since returned, but the majority have remained on Rabi or elsewhere in Fiji. The Banabans came to Fiji in three waves, with the first group of 703, including 318 children, arriving on the BPC vessel, Triona. Accompanying them were 300 other I-Kiribati and they were told that there were houses waiting for them on Rabi, in fact they were given tents to live in and food rations which lasted for only two months. It was the middle of the season, and they were still weak from years of Japanese imprisonment,40 of the oldest Banabans died. They were joined by a second wave between 1975 and 1977, with a final wave arriving between 1981 and 1983, following the ending of mining in 1979. Recognizing the lack of opportunities for Banabans in their homeland, the Rabi Council assisted the remaining population to move to Rabi after 1981, in a number of ways, Rabi is a political anomaly. They are also represented in the Fijian House of Representatives, classified as General Electors and this followed the disappointment of the Rabi Islanders at the refusal of the Kiribati Parliament to grant a portion of the A$786 million trust fund from phosphate proceeds to elderly Rabi islanders. Karoro asserted that Banaba is the property of their descendants who live on Rabi, the trust fund also belong to us even though we do not live on Kiribati, he asserted. He condemned the Kiribati governments policy not to pay the islanders, Council Secretary Molly Amon said, however, that the Rabi Council had yet to reach a consensus on the matter of transferring any mining rights to the Fijian government. On 23 December, Reteta Rimon, Kiribatis High Commissioner to Fiji, clarified that Rabi Islanders were in fact entitled to Kiribati government benefits - and she called for negotiations between the Rabi Council of Leaders and the Kiribati government
25.
Taveuni
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Taveuni is the fifth-largest island in Fiji, after Vanua Levu, Viti Levu, Ono-i-Lau, and Kadavu, with a total land area of 434 square kilometres. The cigar-shaped island, a shield volcano which rises from the floor of the Pacific Ocean, is situated 6.5 kilometres to the east of Vanua Levu. It belongs to the Vanua Levu Group of islands and is part of Fijis Cakaudrove Province within the Northern Division, the island had a population of around 9,000, some 75 percent of them indigenous Fijians, at the 1996 census. Taveuni has abundant flora and is known as the Garden Island of Fiji and it is a popular tourist destination. Tourists are attracted to the excellent diving opportunities, prolific bird life, bushwalks, central parts of the island receive very high rainfall rates. Being volcanic in origin Taveunis soils have supported the islands most historically significant industry, Taveuni is located at the northern end of the Koro Sea and is entirely the product of volcanic activity. Fijis third largest island is separated from Vanua Levu by the Somosomo Strait, the island is between 10 and 14 kilometres wide and 42 km long, is the top of a dormant, elongated shield volcano which erupted from a northeast-southwest trending rift on the ocean floor. About 150 volcanic cones dot the island, including Uluigalau, Fijis second highest peak at 1,241 metres, there have been at least 58 volcanic eruptions since the first human settlement around 950-750 BC, all of which affected the southern two-thirds of the island. Major eruptions from 300–500 AD caused abandonment of the areas until about 1100 AD. The latest eruption produced a flow at the southern tip of the island around 1550. The islands central ridge delineates the greatest volcanic activity surrounding volcanic vents, lake Tagimaucia is one of Taveunis most famous tourist attractions. It occupies a crater at an altitude of 800 metres. Fijis most famous waterfalls, the Bouma Falls, are also on the island, South of Vuna village and the lagoon, jet black rocks litter an area known as the South Cape where Taveunis last volcanic eruption spilled into the sea around 500 years ago. The highlight of the region is the Matamaiqi blowhole with geysers created by trade winds crashing into the volcanic rocks, about 20 minutes by foot from the town of Waiyevo is the Waitavala Waterslide. This entirely natural streambed chute plummets for about 50 metres down the hillside and is a favourite haunt for local children. In eastern Taveuni the Savulevu Yavonu Waterfall empties into the ocean, tavoro Creek, Somosomo Creek, Waimbula River and the islands most notable waterways. Many of Taveunis best known attractions lie underwater though, there are three major, distinct diving areas around the island. To the north of Taveuni lie in proximity the islands of Qamea
26.
Moala Island
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Moala is a volcanic island in the Moala subgroup of Fijis Lau archipelago. It has an area of 62.5 square kilometers, making it the ninth largest island of Fiji, the highest point on the island of Moala, at a maximum elevation of 468 meters, is called Delaimoala which has rich vegetation and consists of dark thick forest. The population of around 3000 live in eight villages, the chiefly village of these is Naroi, whose population is over 500. Economic activities include farming, cocoa production, fishing and yaqona production. Oral history of the Island depicted by the records which is funded by the British through Ratu Sukuna. This separates the Island into two sub-regions, Moala Levu and Moala Lailai, Moala Levu include, the clan that called themselves Yavusa Ratu, and Turagalevu or Turaga Ulu), whose influence is mainly felt on the north-west of the island from Naroi to Vadra. Moala Lailai, whose village of influence once felt all over the islands from Manukui and these group of Moalans are on the south and eastern end of the Island from Vunuku, Cakova and to Nasoki. The eight village that occupy the Island is said to be for the children of Rokomautu whose sons include Rovarovaivalu, whose children in known as the yavusa tinitini, led by Naivalukuru. The village initially settled were Wainikelei, with later settlers being Yavusa Ratu from Verata, the three clans settled in the bay in proximity of each others. The villages that occupy Moala was Wainikelei, Nasau or Korosau, Manukui, Nuku, Vadra, the latter villages were results of tokens of war between Manukui and Nasau. Post Colonial Fiji resulted in the relocation of Nasau to Naroi today, the Methodist Church is strong in Moala. Other Protestant beliefs exist in Moala today and these include, the JWs, SDAs, since the island is populated by Indigenous population, which surprisingly was not by the well known Maafu movement as depicted by some. Josaia Donumaibulu was the first laymen at the time to bring the message to the island, who was rejected by his own kin in Nasau, hence his settle with his relative in Wainikelei. Local folk stories, well known to all, despised by any, depict that Kubunavanua came to Moala from Tonga, upon returning on the Kaunitera, thus the name, Kubuavanua or Kabuavanua. Rokomautu, however remained on the island upon arrival from Totoya, on the Kaunitoni, on a maiden voyage approved by his father, the Ratu. In other folk stories, the Ratu left Totoya, and made his way to now known Verata and this resulted in treachery that shook the Fijian narrative and culture to its core
27.
Totoya
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Template, Taone Totoya is a volcanic island in the Moala subgroup ofa Fijis Lau archipelago. It occupies an area of 28 km², making it the smallest of the Yasayasa Moala Group and its maximum elevation is 366 metres above sea level. The main economic activity is coconut farming, Totoya falls under the provincial administration of the Lau group. The horseshoe-shaped island is protected by a high reef. There are a number of boat passages through the surrounding reef and these passages lead into the beautiful deep bay that is surrounded by the island. The islands unspoiled, untouched white sandy beaches are comparable to any in Fiji or the world and its surfing is world-renowned, but the difficulty in reaching the island keeps most away. The island has a jetty,4 primary schools, not including Vanuavatu, which has its own, a Post office/shop. It is accessible technologically by satellite phone provided by Telecom Fiji, the island has 4 villages with Tovu, the capital and seat of the Turaga na Roko Sau whose household site is known as Mataiilakeba. Ketei is the seat of Tui Ketei, traditionally known as Ramalo, the Turaga Ramalo has the ancient and prestigious role of installing Totoyas High chief, a role that has become obsolete because of rivalry. The third village, Dravuwalu, is the seat of Tui Dravuwalu, traditionally known as Nakorowaiwai and Udu, the fourth village, is the seat of Tui Udu, traditionally known as Muaicokalau. The island of Vanuavatu, although closer to the islands of Lakeba, Vanuavatu has historically and traditionally been the personal possession of the Turaga Na Roko Sau, the High Chief of Totoya and the Yasayasa Moala Group as a whole. Traditionally the High Chief of Totoya district, Roko Sau has dominion over Vanuavatu island, however, Vanuavatu is the seat of Tui Vanua who answers directly to the Roko Sau. Also present within Vanuavatu is the title of Matakitotoya a representative post which further links the Roko Sau to his people and land of Vanuavatu, the island is very rich in marine resources and one could have a field day out at sea. One famous delicacy is Lairo or land crabs, which are all year round. Giant sea clam, a variety of seaweeds and just about any variety of fish can be caught by angling, spear fishing, net fishing, underwater diving, or by traditional means. Compared to its bigger subgroup neighbours of Moala and Matuku, the soil on Totoya is not very fertile, and is good for only small-scale subsistence farming. Cassava, sweet potato, and yams grow well on the island whereas dalo does not grow well and is grown in waterlogged. An important part of Totoya is the sacred passage Daveta Tabu, the head is to be bowed with all mannerisms applicable in a traditional funeral
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Southern Ocean
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As such, it is regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions, smaller than the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans but larger than the Arctic Ocean. This ocean zone is cold, northward flowing waters from the Antarctic mix with warmer subantarctic waters. By way of his voyages in the 1770s, Captain James Cook proved that waters encompassed the southern latitudes of the globe. Since then, geographers have disagreed on the Southern Oceans northern boundary or even existence, considering the part of the Pacific, Atlantic. Others regard the seasonally-fluctuating Antarctic Convergence as the natural boundary, Borders and names for oceans and seas were internationally agreed when the International Hydrographic Bureau, the precusor to the IHO, convened the First International Conference on 24 July 1919. The IHO then published these in its Limits of Oceans and Seas, Australian authorities regard the Southern Ocean as lying immediately south of Australia. Map publishers using the term Southern Ocean on their maps include Hema Maps, Southern Ocean is an obsolete name for the Pacific Ocean or South Pacific, coined by Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the first European to discover it, who approached it from the north. The South Seas is an archaic synonym. A1745 British Act of Parliament established a prize for discovering a Northwest Passage to the Western and Southern Ocean of America, authors using Southern Ocean to name the waters encircling the unknown southern polar regions used varying limits. James Cooks account of his second voyage implies New Caledonia borders it, peacocks 1795 Geographical Dictionary said it lay to the southward of America and Africa, John Payne in 1796 used 40 degrees as the northern limit, the 1827 Edinburgh Gazetteer used 50 degrees. The United Kingdoms South Australia Act 1834 described the waters forming the southern limit of the new colony of South Australia as the Southern Ocean. The Colony of Victorias Legislative Council Act of 1881 delimited part of the division of Bairnsdale as along the New South Wales boundary to the Southern ocean. The limit then followed the west coast of Tasmania southwards to the South East Cape and then went eastwards to Broughton Island, New Zealand, the northern limits of the Southern Ocean were moved southwards in the IHOs 1937 second edition of the Limits of Oceans and Seas. From this edition, much of the northern limit ceased to abut land masses. As is discussed in detail below, prior to the 2002 edition the limits of oceans explicitly excluded the seas lying within each of them. The Great Australian Bight was unnamed in the 1928 edition, and it therefore encompassed former Southern Ocean waters but was technically not inside any of the three adjacent oceans by 1937. To perform direct comparisons of current and former limits of oceans it is necessary to consider, or at least be aware of, the limits of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans have therefore been extended South to the Antarctic Continent. The IHO readdressed the question of the Southern Ocean in a survey in 2000, of its 68 member nations,28 responded, and all responding members except Argentina agreed to redefine the ocean, reflecting the importance placed by oceanographers on ocean currents
29.
Ross Dependency
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The Ross Dependency is a region of Antarctica defined by a sector originating at the South Pole, passing along longitudes 160° east to 150° west, and terminating at latitude 60° south. It is claimed by New Zealand, the Dependency takes its name from Sir James Clark Ross, who discovered the Ross Sea, and includes part of Victoria Land, and most of the Ross Ice Shelf. Ross Island, Balleny Islands and the small Scott Island also form part of the Dependency, following his discovery of Victoria Land in 1841, James Clark Ross took possession of this territory, along with the surrounding sea, on behalf of Britain. The Order in Council then went on to appoint the Governor-General and this Order in Council was published in the New Zealand Gazette on 16 August 1923, and on 14 November 1923, the Governor-General issued regulations extending New Zealand law to the Ross Dependency. Sir Francis stated that, The boundaries of New Zealand are not extended to include the Ross sea, but his excellency was required in all matters of legislation and regulation for the Ross Territory to comply with instructions from the colonial secretary. Technically, the claim is that of the Queen and she can exercise it through any of her Governments, at an Imperial conference in 1930, it was agreed that the Governors-General of the Dominions would be appointed by the King on the advice of the Dominion in question. And following the passing of the Statute of Westminster in 1931, then in the year 1959, the Antarctic Treaty was signed by twelve nations which included both the United Kingdom and New Zealand. The actual amount of land mass claimed is not large, most of the area defined as being in the Ross Dependency is either in the Ross Sea or the Antarctic Ocean. It is the second-smallest of the claims which were prior to the implementation of the Antarctic Treaty System. Officers of the Government of the Ross Dependency are annually appointed to run the Dependency, the New Zealand Geographic Board has named many features within the Dependency. The Dependency has a runway at Williams Field, and depending on conditions and time of year. This guarantees accessibility by wheeled and ski equipped aircraft year round, from 1969 to 1995 New Zealand operated a summer-only base called Vanda Station in the Dry Valley area of the dependency. Greenpeace maintained its own Antarctic station in the Ross Dependency called World Park Base from 1987 to 1992, as this base was a non-governmental entity, the official policy of the signatory nations of the Antarctic Treaty was not to give any support or assistance to it. The expedition was criticised by scientists in the Antarctic because the rescue, timeline of New Zealands links with Antarctica New Zealand, Antarctica and the Southern Ocean — Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. south-pole. com/homepage
30.
New Zealand
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New Zealand /njuːˈziːlənd/ is an island nation in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu—and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, the countrys varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealands capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland, sometime between 1250 and 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in the islands that later were named New Zealand and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand, in 1840, representatives of Britain and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which declared British sovereignty over the islands. In 1841, New Zealand became a colony within the British Empire, today, the majority of New Zealands population of 4.7 million is of European descent, the indigenous Māori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealands culture is derived from Māori and early British settlers. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, New Zealand is a developed country and ranks highly in international comparisons of national performance, such as health, education, economic freedom and quality of life. Since the 1980s, New Zealand has transformed from an agrarian, Queen Elizabeth II is the countrys head of state and is represented by a governor-general. In addition, New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes, the Realm of New Zealand also includes Tokelau, the Cook Islands and Niue, and the Ross Dependency, which is New Zealands territorial claim in Antarctica. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Pacific Islands Forum, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand in 1642 and called it Staten Landt, in 1645, Dutch cartographers renamed the land Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland. British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand, Aotearoa is the current Māori name for New Zealand. It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the country before the arrival of Europeans. Māori had several names for the two main islands, including Te Ika-a-Māui for the North Island and Te Waipounamu or Te Waka o Aoraki for the South Island. Early European maps labelled the islands North, Middle and South, in 1830, maps began to use North and South to distinguish the two largest islands and by 1907, this was the accepted norm. The New Zealand Geographic Board discovered in 2009 that the names of the North Island and South Island had never been formalised and this set the names as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, and South Island or Te Waipounamu
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Gilbert Islands
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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 part of Kiribati. The atolls and islands of the Gilbert Islands are arranged in an approximate north-to-south line, as the crow flies it is approximately 420 nautical miles between the northernmost island, Makin, and the southernmost, Arorae. In a geographical sense, the equator serves as the line between the northern Gilbert Islands and the southern Gilbert Islands. The International Hydrographic Organization considers the Gilberts wholly within the South Pacific Ocean, another method of grouping the Gilbert Islands is by former administrative districts, the Northern, Central, and Southern Gilberts. A group of the southern Gilberts is called the Kingsmill Group, the Gilberts form a continuous chain of seamounts with the Ratak Chain of the Marshall Islands to the north. In official north-south order, the islands and atolls are, The Northern Gilberts geographically and traditionally encompass Butaritari, Makin, Marakei, Abaiang and they have unique tonal accents with differences particularly noted amongst Butaritari and Makin inhabitants. Traditionally, Butaritari and Makin were ruled by a chief who lived on Butaritari Island, the northern Gilberts have a greater mean rainfall in comparison to the southern and central Gilberts allowing cultivation of a wider crop range. Butaritari and Makin supply most of the bananas sold in Kiribati, the cultivation of taro or babai has been historically easier in the northern Gilberts due to a higher water table and regular rainfall. The Central Gilberts or nuka have traditionally included Maiana, Abemama, Kuria, however, the latter three are considered the main islands that have unique historical and cultural characteristics which distinguish the Central Gilberts from the north and south. Tembinok, the last king of Abemama, Kuria and Aranuka died in the part of the 20th century. The Southern Gilberts include the atolls of Nonouti, South and North Tabiteuea, Beru, Nikunau, Onotoa, Tamana, the islands had been inhabited by Micronesians for several millennia. In 1606 Pedro Fernandes de Queirós sighted Butaritari and Makin, which he named the Buen Viaje Islands, Captain John Byron passed through the islands in 1764 during his circumnavigation of the globe as captain of HMS Dolphin. French captain Louis Duperrey was the first to map the whole Gilbert Islands archipelago and he commanded La Coquille on its circumnavigation of the earth. Two ships of the United States Exploring Expedition, USS Peacock and USS Flying Fish, under the command of Captain Hudson, while in the Gilberts, they devoted considerable time to mapping and charting reefs and anchorages. A British protectorate was first proclaimed over the Gilberts by Captain Davis of HMS Royalist on 27 May 1892, British official Arthur Mahaffy visited the Islands in 1909. He noted that the villages are kept in order and the roads are scrupulously clean. A hospital was on island, as well
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Phoenix Islands
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The Phoenix Islands or Rawaki are a group of eight atolls and two submerged coral reefs, lying in the central Pacific Ocean east of the Gilbert Islands and west of the Line Islands. They are a part of the Republic of Kiribati, during the late 1930s, they became the site of the last attempted colonial expansion of the British Empire through the Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme. The Phoenix Islands Protected Area, established in 2008, is one of the worlds largest protected areas, the group is uninhabited except for a few families on Kanton. The United States unincorporated territories of Baker Island and Howland Island are often considered northerly outliers of the group, Howland and Baker are statistically grouped with the United States Minor Outlying Islands, however. The United States previously claimed all the Phoenix Islands under the Guano Islands Act, the Treaty of Tarawa released all US claims to the Phoenix Islands, excluding Baker and Howland. At various times, the islands were considered part of the Gilbert group, the name Phoenix for this group of islands seems to have been settled on in the 1840s, after an island of that name within the group. Phoenix Island was probably named after one of the many whaleships of that name plying these waters in the early 19th century, the Phoenix Islands are a group of eight islands, totalling 28 square kilometres in land area, located in the central Pacific, north of Samoa. The chain comprises a portion of Kiribati, the only island of any commercial importance is Kanton Island. The other islands include Enderbury, Rawaki, Manra, Birnie, McKean, Nikumaroro, Kanton, or Abariringa Island, is the northernmost and sole inhabited island in the Phoenix group. It is a ribbon of land 9 km2, enclosing a lagoon of approximately 40 km2. Kanton is mostly bare coral, covered with herbs, bunch grasses, low shrubs and its lagoon teems with 153 known species of marine life, including sharks, tuna, stingrays and eels. Land fauna includes at least 23 bird species, lizards, rats, hermit crabs, today, the island still exhibits the remains of the airline and military presence, with 41 persons residing there, most living in abandoned structures from the U. S. /UK occupation. Enderbury is a low, flat, small coral atoll lying 63 km ESE of Kanton and its lagoon is rather tiny, comprising only a small percentage of the islands area. Herbs, bunchgrass, morning-glory vines and a few clumps of trees form the main vegetation on the island, while birds, rats and a species of beetle are the known fauna. Heavily mined for guano in the late 19th century, Enderbury has seen little human impact following the evacuation of the last few colonists in 1942, during World War II. Birnie Island is a small, flat coral island about 20 hectares in area and it contains a tiny lagoon, which has all but dried up. A nesting place for flocks of seabirds, Birnie is devoid of trees and is covered with low shrubs. Unlike most of the other Phoenix Islands, Birnie does not appear to have worked for guano or otherwise exploited by humans
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Kiribati
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Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation in the central Pacific Ocean. The permanent population is just over 100,000, more than half of live on Tarawa Atoll. The nation comprises 33 atolls and reef islands and one raised coral island and they have a total land area of 800 square kilometres and are dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometers. Their spread straddles the equator and the 180th meridian, although the International Date Line is indented to bring the Line Islands in the day as the Kiribati Islands. The International Date Line circumscribes Kiribati by swinging far to the east, almost reaching the 150°W meridian, Kiribatis easternmost islands, the southern Line Islands south of Hawaii, have the most advanced time on Earth, UTC+14 hours. Kiribati became independent from the United Kingdom in 1979, the capital and now most populated area, South Tarawa, consists of a number of islets, connected by a series of causeways. These comprise about half the area of Tarawa Atoll, Kiribati is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the IMF and the World Bank, and became a full member of the United Nations in 1999. The name Kiribati was adopted at independence and it is local enunciation of Gilberts. This name derives from the archipelago that forms the nation. It was named the Gilbert Islands after the British explorer Thomas Gilbert and he sighted many of the islands in 1788 while mapping out the Outer Passage route from Port Jackson to Canton. The Kiribati archipelago was named Îles Gilbert, in about 1820, by Russian admiral Adam von Krusenstern, both their maps, published in 1820, were written in French. The archipelagos name was incorporated in the entire Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony from 1916, the spelling of Gilberts in the Gilbertese language as Kiribati may be found in books in Gilbertese prepared by missionaries and others. It is often suggested that the name for the Gilbert Islands proper is Tungaru. The pronunciation differs, Kiribas is the pronunciation as ti in Kiribatese makes an s sound. The area now called Kiribati has been inhabited by Micronesians speaking the same Oceanic language since sometime between 3000 BC and AD1300, the area was not isolated, invaders from Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji, later introduced Polynesian and Melanesian cultural aspects, respectively. Intermarriage tended to blur cultural differences and resulted in a significant degree of cultural homogenisation, chance visits by European ships occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries, as these ships attempted circumnavigations of the world or sought sailing routes from the south to north Pacific Ocean. The passing trade gave rise to European, Chinese, Samoan and other residents from the 1830s, they included beachcombers, castaways, traders and missionaries. In 1892 local authorities on each of the Gilbert Islands agreed to Captain Davis RN declaring them part of a British protectorate with the nearby Ellice Islands
34.
North Island
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The North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the slightly larger but much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The islands area is 113,729 square kilometres, making it the worlds 14th-largest island and it has a population of 3,596,200. Twelve main urban areas are in the North Island, about 77% of New Zealands population lives in the North Island. Although the island has been known as the North Island for many years, in 2009 the New Zealand Geographic Board found that, along with the South Island, after a public consultation, the board officially named the island North Island or Te Ika-a-Maui in October 2013. In prose, the two islands of New Zealand are called the North Island and the South Island, with the definite articles. It is normal to use the preposition in rather than on, for example Hamilton is in the North Island, maps, headings, tables and adjectival expressions use North Island without the. According to Māori mythology, the North and South Islands of New Zealand arose through the actions of the demigod Māui, Māui and his brothers were fishing from their canoe when he caught a great fish and pulled it from the sea. While he was not looking his brothers fought over the fish and this great fish became the North Island and thus a Māori name for the North Island is Te Ika-a-Māui. The mountains and valleys are believed to have formed as a result of Māuis brothers hacking at the fish. Until the early 20th Century, an alternative Māori name for the North Island was Aotearoa, in present usage, Aotearoa is a collective name for New Zealand as a whole. The sub-national GDP of the North Island was estimated at US$102.863 billion in 2003, the island has an extensive flora and bird population, with numerous National Parks and other protected areas. Nine local government regions cover the North Island and all its adjacent islands, healthcare in the North Island is provided by fifteen District Health Boards. Organised around geographical areas of varying sizes, they are not coterminous with the Local Government Regions
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Kermadec Islands
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The Kermadec Islands /kərˈmædɛk/ are a subtropical island arc in the South Pacific Ocean 800–1,000 km northeast of New Zealands North Island, and a similar distance southwest of Tonga. The islands are part of New Zealand,33 km2 in total area and nowadays uninhabited, except for the permanently manned Raoul Island Station, the northernmost outpost of New Zealand. Polynesian people settled the Kermadec Islands in around the 14th century, the islands were named for the Breton captain Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec, who visited the islands as part of the dEntrecasteaux expedition in the 1790s. European settlers, initially the Bell family, lived on the islands from the nineteenth century until 1937. One of the Bell daughters, Elsie K. Morton, recounted the experience there in her memoir. The Station consists of a government meteorological and radio station, and a hostel for Department of Conservation officers and volunteers and it lies on the northern terraces of Raoul Island, at an elevation of about 50 m, above the cliffs of Fleetwood Bluff. It is the northernmost inhabited outpost of New Zealand, the islands lie within 29° to 31. 5° south latitude and 178° to 179° west longitude, 800–1,000 km northeast of New Zealands North Island, and a similar distance southwest of Tonga. The centre of the Kermadec Islands group is located at approximately 29°16′37″S 177°55′24″W, the total area of the islands is 33.08 km2. The climate of the islands is subtropical, with a mean temperature of 22.4 °C in February and 16.0 °C in August. Rainfall is approximately 1,500 mm annually, with rainfall from October through January. The group includes four islands and some isolated rocks, which are, from north to south. It is located at 29°16′0″S 177°55′10″W,900 km south-southwest of Ata, the southernmost island of Tonga, Raoul Island has an area of 29.06 km2 with neighboring island, Haszard Island. Macdonald Rock is about 4 km north of Macauley Island at 30°11′S 178°26′W, Curtis Island, the third largest, is located at 30°32′32″S 178°33′39″W,35 km south-southwest of Macauley Island,137 m high, area 0.59 km2 with neighbouring Cheeseman Island. Nugent Island is the northernmost island and it is located at 29°13′54″S 177°52′09″W. It is approximately 100 metres across, LEsperance Rock, formerly French Rock, is 80 km south-southwest of Curtis Island at 31°26′S 178°54′W,250 m in diameter,0.05 km2 in area,70 m high. LHavre Rock, about 8 km north-northwest of LEsperance Rock near 31°21′S 178°59′W Seamounts north and south of the Kermadec Islands are an extension of the running from Tonga to New Zealand. The subducting Pacific Plate created the Kermadec Trench, an 8 km deep submarine trench, the islands lie along the undersea Kermadec Ridge, which runs southwest from the islands towards the North Island of New Zealand and northeast towards Tonga. The four main islands are the peaks of volcanoes that rise high enough from the seabed to project above sea level, there are several other volcanoes in the chain that do not reach sea level, but form seamounts with between 65 and 1500 m of water above their peaks
36.
Bounty Islands
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The Bounty Islands are a small group of 13 uninhabited granite islets and numerous rocks, with a combined area of 135 ha, in the south Pacific Ocean that are territorially part of New Zealand. They lie about 670 km east-south-east of the South Island of New Zealand, the group is a World Heritage Site. Captain William Bligh discovered the Bounty Islands en route from Spithead to Tahiti in 1788 and named them after his ship, HMS Bounty, the location of the islands were only roughly marked on charts. In early 1866 Commander W H Norman of HMCS Victoria was tasked with determining more accurately their position and he reported them as being latitude 47ˈ50 South and longitude 179ˈ00 East. Captain George Palmer, during the search for the Matoaka placed the islands at 47ˈ46ˈ24 South 178ˈ56ˈ45 East, Palmer also annexed the islands for New Zealand. During the 19th century the area were a popular hunting-ground for sealers, the islands were also searched from time to time for missing ships and crews, including those from the General Grant and the Matoaka. The Hinemoa visited the islands in March 1886 and erected a depot for marooned sailors on the largest island, captain Fairchild noted that there was no fresh water available on these islands. The depot was destroyed by the sea by the time the Stella visited the island in 1887, a new Admiralty chart 1022 was issued for the area in 1888, which took into account survey work undertaken by the Hinemoa. In November 1891 the Hinemoa returned to the islands and built a fresh provisions storage, ecologically, the islands are part of the Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion. The group is home to numbers of seabirds. The whole chain is only 5 km across at its longest axis, the total area is only 1.35 km2. The islands are at the antipodes of Bouillé-Ménard, in France, the Main Group is the largest of the three groups, and is located in the northwest of the chain. It includes the groups largest island, Depot Island, which is around 700 metres in length and 400 metres across at its widest point, proclamation and Tunnel Islands are separated from Depot Island by only a narrow cleft, and are joined to it at low tide. A small islet off the north coast of this groups Spider Island is the chains northernmost point, the Centre Group is located some 1.5 to 2 kilometres to the southeast of the Main Group, and contains three main islands, arrayed in a north-south line. A smaller islet lies immediately to the west, the northernmost of the Centre Group, Funnel Island, contains the chains highest point, at 73 metres above sea level. A further 1.5 kilometres to the east is the East Group, the largest island in this group, Molly Cap, is the groups southernmost island, and contains the chains second-highest point,70 metres above sea level. This group contains two islets and one small islet, along with several reefs and stacks, one of which is the easternmost point in the chain. Main Group, Depot Island, named for the depot on the island
37.
Chatham Islands
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The Chatham Islands form an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about 650 kilometres east of mainland New Zealand. It consists of ten islands within a 40-kilometre radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island. The archipelago is called Rēkohu in the indigenous Moriori language, Moriori are the indigenous people of the Chatham Islands, and members of the Māori Ngāti Mutunga tribe have also settled on the island. It has officially been part of New Zealand since 1842 and includes the countrys easternmost point, the islands are at about 43°53′S 176°31′W, roughly 840 kilometres east of Christchurch, New Zealand. The nearest mainland New Zealand point to the Chatham Islands is Cape Turnagain, in the North Island at a distance of 650 kilometres, the nearest mainland city to the islands is Hastings, New Zealand, located 697 kilometres to the North-West. The two largest islands, Chatham Island and Pitt Island, constitute most of the area of 966 square kilometres. The islands sit on the Chatham Rise, a large, relatively shallowly submerged part of the Zealandia continent that stretches east from near the South Island. The Chatham Islands, which emerged only within the last four years, are the only part of the Chatham Rise showing above sea level. The islands are hilly with coasts being a mixture including cliffs and dunes, beaches. Chatham has a number of streams, including Te Awainanga and Tuku, Chatham and Pitt are the only inhabited islands, with the remaining smaller islands being conservation reserves with restricted or prohibited access. The livelihoods of the inhabitants depend on agriculture, with the island being an exporter of coldwater crayfish, the names of the main islands, in the order of occupation are, Chatham Islands have a maritime climate characterised by a narrow temperature range and relatively frequent rainfall. Its isolated position far from any sizeable landmass renders the record temperature for main settlement Waitangi to be just 23.8 °C. The climate is cool, wet and windy, with high temperatures between 15 and 20 °C in summer, and between 5 and 10 °C in July, the Southern Hemisphere winter. Snow is extremely rare, having being recorded near sea level in July 2015 after several decades, the International Date Line lies to the east of the Chathams, even though the islands lie east of 180° longitude. Of interest are the trees, with branches trailing almost horizontally in the lee of the wind. The ferns in the forest understory include Blechnum discolor, the islands are a breeding ground for huge flocks of seabirds and are home to a number of endemic birds, some of which are seabirds and others which live on the islands. The best known species are the magenta petrel and the black robin, Other endemic species are the Chatham oystercatcher, the Chatham gerygone, Chatham pigeon, Forbes parakeet, the Chatham snipe and the shore plover. The endemic Chatham shag, Pitt shag and the Chatham albatross are at risk of capture by a variety of fishing gear, including fishing lines, trawls, gillnets, for accounts and notes on seabird species seen in the Chathams between 1960 and 1993 online
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GeoJSON
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GeoJSON is an open standard format designed for representing simple geographical features, along with their non-spatial attributes, based on JavaScript Object Notation. The features include points, line strings, polygons, and multi-part collections of these types, GeoJSON features need not represent entities of the physical world only, mobile routing and navigation apps, for example, might describe their service coverage using GeoJSON. The GeoJSON format differs from other GIS standards in that it was written and is maintained not by a standards organization. A notable offspring of GeoJSON is TopoJSON, an extension of GeoJSON that encodes geospatial topology, the GeoJSON format working group and discussion were begun in March 2007 and the format specification was finalized in June 2008. In April 2015 the Internet Engineering Task Force has founded the Geographic JSON working group which released GeoJSON as RFC7946 in August 2016. GeoJSON is supported by numerous mapping and GIS software packages, including OpenLayers, Leaflet, MapServer, Geoforge software, GeoServer, GeoDjango, PointPlot, GDAL, Safe Software FME, and CartoDB. It is also possible to use GeoJSON with PostGIS and Mapnik, bing Maps, Yahoo. and Google also support GeoJSON in their API services. The Google Maps JavaScript API v3 directly supports the integration of GeoJSON data layers as of March 19,2014, for the Julia language a GeoJSON. jl package is available. GitHub also supports GeoJSON rendering and Potrace GeoJSON export, geojson. io supports GeoJSON rendering and editing in the web browser. TopoJSON is an extension of GeoJSON that encodes topology, rather than representing geometries discretely, geometries in TopoJSON files are stitched together from shared line segments called arcs. Arcs are sequences of points, while line strings and polygons are defined as sequences of arcs, each arc is defined only once, but can be referenced several times by different shapes, thus reducing redundancy and decreasing the file size. In addition, TopoJSON facilitates applications that use topology, such as topology-preserving shape simplification, automatic map coloring, and cartograms. TopoJSON is also supported by the popular OGR tool as of version 1.11 and PostGIS as of version 2.1.0. org/ http, //geojson. org/geojson-spec. html Andrews, archived from the original on 2009-02-21. Google Geo Developers Blog, Build on top of your public Latitude location with GeoJSON & KML. https, //github. com/mbostock/topojson https, //github. com/topojson/topojson-specification
39.
OpenStreetMap
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OpenStreetMap is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world. OSM is considered a prominent example of volunteered geographic information, created by Steve Coast in the UK in 2004, it was inspired by the success of Wikipedia and the predominance of proprietary map data in the UK and elsewhere. Since then, it has grown to over 2 million registered users, who can collect data using manual survey, GPS devices, aerial photography and these crowdsourced data are then made available under the Open Database Licence. The site is supported by the OpenStreetMap Foundation, an organisation registered in England. Rather than the map itself, the data generated by the OpenStreetMap project are considered its primary output, OpenStreetMap data have been favourably compared with proprietary datasources, though data quality varies worldwide. Steve Coast founded the project in 2004, initially focusing on mapping the United Kingdom, in the UK and elsewhere, government-run and tax-funded projects like the Ordnance Survey created massive datasets but failed to freely and widely distribute them. In April 2006, the OpenStreetMap Foundation was established to encourage the growth, development and distribution of free data and provide geospatial data for anybody to use. In December 2006, Yahoo. confirmed that OpenStreetMap could use its aerial photography as a backdrop for map production, sponsors of the event included Google, Yahoo. and Multimap. In October 2007, OpenStreetMap completed the import of a US Census TIGER road dataset, in December 2007, Oxford University became the first major organisation to use OpenStreetMap data on their main website. In March, two announced that they have received venture capital funding of €2.4 million for CloudMade. In November 2010, Bing changed their licence to use of their satellite imagery for making maps. In 2012, the launch of pricing for Google Maps led several prominent websites to switch from their service to OpenStreetMap and other competitors. Map data is collected from scratch by volunteers performing systematic ground surveys using tools such as a handheld GPS unit, the data is then entered into the OpenStreetMap database. Mapathon competition events are held by OpenStreetMap team and by non-profit organisations. The availability of photography and other data from commercial and government sources has added important sources of data for manual editing. Special processes are in place to handle automated imports and avoid legal and technical problems, editing of maps can be done using the default web browser editor called iD, an HTML5 application using D3. js and written by MapBox. The earlier Flash-based application Potlatch is retained for intermediate-level users, JOSM and Merkaartor are more powerful desktop editing applications that are better suited for advanced users. The GNOME Maps application developed for the GNOME desktop environment, which runs on many Linux operating systems, the project has a geographically diverse user-base, due to emphasis of local knowledge and ground truth in the process of data collection
40.
Circle of latitude
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A circle of latitude on the Earth is an abstract east–west circle connecting all locations around the earth at a given latitude. Circles of latitude are called parallels because they are parallel to each other – that is. A locations position along a circle of latitude is given by its longitude and their length can be calculated by a common sine or cosine function. The 60th circle of latitude is half as long as the equator, a circle of latitude is perpendicular to all meridians. The latitude of the circle is approximately the angle between the equator and the circle, with the vertex at the Earths centre. The equator is at 0°, and the North and South poles are at 90° north, the Equator is the longest circle of latitude and is the only circle of latitude which also is a great circle. There is no limit to how precisely latitude can be measured, on a map, the circles of latitude may or may not be parallel, and their spacing may vary, depending on which projection is used to map the surface of the Earth onto a plane. On an equirectangular projection, centered on the equator, the circles of latitude are horizontal, parallel, on other cylindrical and pseudocylindrical projections, the circles of latitude are horizontal and parallel, but may be spaced unevenly to give the map useful characteristics. On most non-cylindrical and non-pseudocylindrical projections, the circles of latitude are neither straight nor parallel, North American nations and states have also mostly been created by straight lines, which are often parts of circles of latitudes. For instance, the border of Colorado is at 41°N while the southern border is at 37°N. Roughly half the length of border between the United States and Canada follows 49°N, there are five major circles of latitude, listed below from north to south. The position of the Equator is fixed but the latitudes of the other circles depend on the tilt of this axis relative to the plane of the Earths orbit, the equator is the circle that is equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole. It divides the Earth into the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere, of the parallels or circles of latitude, it is the longest, and the only great circle. All the other parallels are smaller and centered only on the earths axis, the Arctic Circle is the southernmost latitude in the Northern Hemisphere at which the sun can remain continuously above or below the horizon for 24 hours. Similarly, the Antarctic Circle marks the northernmost latitude in the Southern Hemisphere at which the sun can remain continuously above or below the horizon for 24 hours. The Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn mark the northernmost and southernmost latitudes at which the sun may be directly overhead. The latitude of the circles is equal to the Earths axial tilt. In 2000 the mean value of the tilt was about 23° 26′ 21″, the main long-term cycle causes the axial tilt to fluctuate between about 22. 1° and 24. 5° with a period of 41,000 years
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Equator
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The Equator usually refers to an imaginary line on the Earths surface equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole, dividing the Earth into the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. The Equator is about 40,075 kilometres long, some 78. 7% lies across water and 21. 3% over land, other planets and astronomical bodies have equators similarly defined. Generally, an equator is the intersection of the surface of a sphere with the plane that is perpendicular to the spheres axis of rotation. The latitude of the Earths equator is by definition 0° of arc, the equator is the only line of latitude which is also a great circle — that is, one whose plane passes through the center of the globe. The plane of Earths equator when projected outwards to the celestial sphere defines the celestial equator, in the cycle of Earths seasons, the plane of the equator passes through the Sun twice per year, at the March and September equinoxes. To an observer on the Earth, the Sun appears to travel North or South over the equator at these times, light rays from the center of the Sun are perpendicular to the surface of the Earth at the point of solar noon on the Equator. Locations on the Equator experience the quickest sunrises and sunsets because the sun moves nearly perpendicular to the horizon for most of the year. The Earth bulges slightly at the Equator, the diameter of the Earth is 12,750 kilometres. Because the Earth spins to the east, spacecraft must also launch to the east to take advantage of this Earth-boost of speed, seasons result from the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earths axis relative to the plane of revolution. During the year the northern and southern hemispheres are inclined toward or away from the sun according to Earths position in its orbit, the hemisphere inclined toward the sun receives more sunlight and is in summer, while the other hemisphere receives less sun and is in winter. At the equinoxes, the Earths axis is not tilted toward the sun, instead it is perpendicular to the sun meaning that the day is about 12 hours long, as is the night, across the whole of the Earth. Near the Equator there is distinction between summer, winter, autumn, or spring. The temperatures are usually high year-round—with the exception of high mountains in South America, the temperature at the Equator can plummet during rainstorms. In many tropical regions people identify two seasons, the wet season and the dry season, but many places close to the Equator are on the oceans or rainy throughout the year, the seasons can vary depending on elevation and proximity to an ocean. The Equator lies mostly on the three largest oceans, the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. The highest point on the Equator is at the elevation of 4,690 metres, at 0°0′0″N 77°59′31″W and this is slightly above the snow line, and is the only place on the Equator where snow lies on the ground. At the Equator the snow line is around 1,000 metres lower than on Mount Everest, the Equator traverses the land of 11 countries, it also passes through two island nations, though without making a landfall in either. Starting at the Prime Meridian and heading eastwards, the Equator passes through, Despite its name, however, its island of Annobón is 155 km south of the Equator, and the rest of the country lies to the north
Kiribati;
New Zealand;
