1.
Caroline Island
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Caroline Island or Caroline Atoll, is the easternmost of the uninhabited coral atolls which comprise the southern Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean. It is home to one of the worlds largest populations of the crab and is an important breeding site for seabirds. The atoll is currently designated as a wildlife sanctuary, in 2014 the Kiribati government established a 12-nautical-mile fishing exclusion zone around each of the southern Line Islands. The atoll is best known for its role in the millennium celebrations, a 1995 realignment of the International Date Line made Caroline Island one of the first points of land on Earth to reach January 1,2000 on the calendar. Caroline Atoll lies near the end of the Line Islands. The slightly crescent-shaped atoll consists of 39 separate islets surrounding a lagoon,8.7 by 1.2 km2 in size. The total atoll area, including dry land, lagoon and reef flat, measures 13 by 2.5 km, the islets rise to a height of only 6 meters above sea level. The islets, like those of all atolls, share a common origin and consist of sand deposits. According to the path of the International Date Line, Caroline Island is the easternmost point of land on Earth, three large islets make up the bulk of Carolines land area, Nake Islet at the north, Long Islet at the northeast of the lagoon and South Islet. The central lagoon, roughly 6 by 0.5 km, is shallow – at most 5–7 m in depth – and is crossed repeatedly by narrow coral heads and patch reefs. Reef flats generally extend about 500 m from shore— although some report them to extend more than a kilometer from land—. Most landings are made at a small break in the reef at the northwest corner of the South Islet. Densities of giant clams reach up to four per square foot in parts of the lagoon, the most common species is the “small giant clam” Tridacna maxima and largest clam species, Tridacna gigas is also found in the lagoon. The lagoon is a habitat for many fish species including important and heavily exploited species such as the Blacktip reef shark. Soils on Caroline are similarly poor, dominated by gravel and sand, with significant organic content present only within stable. Guano deposits make island soil, where it does exist, nitrogen-rich, like the rest of Kiribati, Caroline Island enjoys a tropical maritime climate which is consistently hot and humid. Meteorological records are sparse, but temperatures generally range between 28 and 32 degrees Celsius year round, Caroline lies within a region of highly variable precipitation, but is estimated to receive an average of 1,500 mm of rain annually. Tides are on the order of 0.5 m and trade winds, generally from the northeast and its relatively undisturbed state has led to Caroline being considered for designation as a World Heritage Site and as a Biosphere Reserve
2.
Yap
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Yap or Wa′ab traditionally refers to an island located in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, a part of the Federated States of Micronesia. The name Yap in recent years has come to refer to the state within the Federated States of Micronesia, inclusive of the Yap Main Islands. The Yap Main Islands is considered to be made up of four islands, Yap Island proper, Gagil-Tamil, Maap. The four are contiguous, though separated by water, and are surrounded by a coral reef. They are formed from an uplift of the Philippine Sea Plate, the land is mostly rolling hills, densely vegetated. Mangrove swamps line much of the shore, although there are beaches on the sides of the islands. Excluding the reef area, Yap is approximately 24 km long, 5–10 km wide, the highest elevation is 178 meters/584 feet at Mount Taabiywol in Fanif municipality on Yap island proper. The Yapese peoples indigenous cultures and traditions are strong compared to states in Micronesia. Historically, a system existed between the Neighboring Islands and the Yap Main Islands. This probably related to the need for goods from the islands, including food. In 2000 the population of Colonia and ten other municipalities totalled 11,241, the state has a total land area of 102 km2. The only region of which this is true is the Caroline Islands with their stone money, the first recorded sighting of Yap by Europeans came during the Spanish expedition of Álvaro de Saavedra in 1528. Its sighting was recorded by the Spanish expedition of Ruy López de Villalobos on 26 January 1543. Yap also appeared in Spanish charts as Los Garbanzos and Gran Carolina, from the 17th century until 1899, Yap was a Spanish colony within the Captaincy General of the Philippines of the Spanish East Indies. The Spanish used Yap Island as a prison for those captured during the Philippine Revolution, after the defeat against the United States in 1898 and subsequent loss of the Philippines, Spain sold these islands and its other minor Pacific possessions to Germany. It was occupied by Japanese troops in September 1914, and passed to the Japanese Empire under the Versailles Treaty in 1919 as a territory under League of Nations supervision. US commercial rights on the island were secured by a special US-Japanese treaty to that effect, the Japanese garrison comprised 4,423 IJA men under the command of Colonel Daihachi Itoh and 1,494 IJN men. At the end of World War II, Yap was occupied by the U. S. military victors, the U. S. held it and the rest of the Caroline Islands as a trusteeship under a United Nations mandate until 1986
3.
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
4.
New Guinea
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New Guinea is a large Island in the South West Pacific region. It is the worlds second-largest island, after Greenland, covering an area of 785,753 km2. The island is divided between two countries, Papua New Guinea to the east, and Indonesia to the west, the island has been known by various names. The name Papua was used to refer to parts of the island before contact with the West and its etymology is unclear, one theory states that it is from Tidore, the language used by the Sultanate of Tidore, which controlled parts of the islands coastal region. The name came from papo and ua, which means not united or, ploeg reports that the word papua is often said to derive from the Malay word papua or pua-pua, meaning frizzly-haired, referring to the highly curly hair of the inhabitants of these areas. When the Portuguese and Spanish explorers arrived in the island via the Spice Islands, when the Dutch colonized it as part of Netherlands East Indies, they called it Nieuw Guinea. The name Irian was used in the Indonesian language to refer the island and Indonesian province, the name was promoted in 1945 by Marcus Kaisiepo, brother of the future governor Frans Kaisiepo. It is taken from the Biak language of Biak Island, and means to rise and this name of Irian is the name used in the Biak language and other languages such as Serui, Merauke and Waropen. The name was used until 2001, when the name Papua was again used for the island, the name Irian, which was originally favored by natives, is now considered to be a name imposed by the authority of Jakarta. New Guinea is an island to the north of Australia, and it is isolated by the Arafura Sea to the west and the Torres Strait and Coral Sea to the east. A spine of east–west mountains, the New Guinea Highlands, dominates the geography of New Guinea, stretching over 1,600 km from the head to the tail of the island. The western half of the island of New Guinea contains the highest mountains in Oceania, rising up to 4,884 m high, the tree line is around 4,000 m elevation and the tallest peaks contain permanent equatorial glaciers—which have been retreating since at least 1936. Various other smaller mountain ranges occur both north and west of the central ranges, except in high elevations, most areas possess a warm humid climate throughout the year, with some seasonal variation associated with the northeast monsoon season. At 4,884 metres, Puncak Jaya makes New Guinea the worlds fourth highest landmass, Puncak Mandala, located in Papua, is the second highest peak on the island at 4,760 metres. Puncak Trikora, also in Papua, is 4,750 metres, mount Wilhelm is the highest peak on the PNG side of the border at 4,509 metres. Its granite peak is the highest point of the Bismarck Range, mount Giluwe 4,368 metres is the second highest summit in PNG. It is also the highest volcanic peak in Oceania, another major habitat feature is the vast southern and northern lowlands. Stretching for hundreds of kilometres, these include lowland rainforests, extensive wetlands, savanna grasslands, the southern lowlands are the site of Lorentz National Park, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site
5.
Federated States of Micronesia
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Together, the states comprise around 607 islands that cover a longitudinal distance of almost 2,700 km just north of the equator. While the FSMs total land area is small, it occupies more than 2,600,000 km2 of the Pacific Ocean. The capital is Palikir, located on Pohnpei Island, while the largest city is Weno, each of its four states is centered on one or more main high islands, and all but Kosrae include numerous outlying atolls. The Federated States of Micronesia is spread across part of the Caroline Islands in the region of Micronesia. The term Micronesia may refer to the Federated States or to the region as a whole, the FSM was formerly a part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, a United Nations Trust Territory under U. S. Other neighboring island entities, and also members of the TTPI, formulated their own constitutional governments and became the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The FSM has a seat in the United Nations, the ancestors of the Micronesians settled over four thousand years ago. A decentralized chieftain-based system eventually evolved into a centralized economic. Nan Madol, consisting of a series of artificial islands linked by a network of canals, is often called the Venice of the Pacific. European explorers—first the Portuguese in search of the Spice Islands and then the Spanish—reached the Carolines in the sixteenth century, the Spanish incorporated the archipelago to the Spanish East Indies and in the 19th century established a number of outposts and missions. In 1887, they founded the town of Santiago de la Ascension in what today is Kolonia on the island of Pohnpei, following defeat in the Spanish–American War, the Spanish sold the archipelago to Germany in 1899 under the German–Spanish Treaty of 1899. Germany incorporated it into German New Guinea, during World War I, it was captured by Japan. Following the war, the League of Nations awarded a mandate for Japan to administer the islands as part of the South Pacific Mandate, during World War II, a significant portion of the Japanese fleet was based in Truk Lagoon. In February 1944, Operation Hailstone, one of the most important naval battles of the war, took place at Truk, in which many Japanese support vessels and aircraft were destroyed. On May 10,1979, four of the Trust Territory districts ratified a new constitution to become the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands chose not to participate. The FSM signed a Compact of Free Association with the United States, independence was formally concluded under international law in 1990, when the United Nations officially ended the Trusteeship status pursuant to Security Council Resolution 683. The Compact was renewed in 2004, the Federated States of Micronesia is governed by the 1979 constitution, which guarantees fundamental human rights and establishes a separation of governmental powers. The unicameral Congress has fourteen members elected by popular vote, four senators—one from each state—serve four-year terms, the remaining ten senators represent single-member districts based on population, and serve two-year terms
6.
Palau
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Palau, officially the Republic of Palau, is an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean. The country contains approximately 250 islands, forming the western chain of the Caroline Islands in Micronesia, the most populous island is Koror. The capital Ngerulmud is located on the island of Babeldaob. Palau shares maritime boundaries with Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Federated States of Micronesia, the country was originally settled approximately 3,000 years ago by migrants from the Philippines and sustained a Negrito population until around 900 years ago. The islands were first explored by Europeans in the 16th century, the Imperial Japanese Navy conquered Palau during World War I, and the islands were later made a part of the Japanese-ruled South Pacific Mandate by the League of Nations. During World War II, skirmishes, including the major Battle of Peleliu, were fought between American and Japanese troops as part of the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign. Along with other Pacific Islands, Palau was made a part of the United States-governed Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in 1947. Having voted against joining the Federated States of Micronesia in 1979, politically, Palau is a presidential republic in free association with the United States, which provides defense, funding, and access to social services. Legislative power is concentrated in the bicameral Palau National Congress, Palaus economy is based mainly on tourism, subsistence agriculture and fishing, with a significant portion of gross national product derived from foreign aid. The country uses the United States dollar as its currency, the islands culture mixes Micronesian, Melanesian, Asian, and Western elements. Ethnic Palauans, the majority of the population, are of mixed Micronesian, Melanesian, a smaller proportion of the population is descended from Japanese and Filipino settlers. The countrys two official languages are Palauan and English, with Japanese, Sonsorolese, and Tobian recognised as regional languages. The name for the islands in the Palauan language, Belau, likely derives from either the Palauan word for village, beluu, or from aibebelau, the name Palau entered the English language from the Spanish Los Palaos, via the German Palau. An archaic name for the islands in English was the Pelew Islands and it should not be confused with Pulau, which is a Malay word meaning island. Palau was originally settled between the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, most likely from the Austronesia or Indonesia, the islands sustained a population of short-statured Negrito or Pygmy people until the 12th century, when they were replaced. The modern population, judging by its language, may have come from the Sunda Islands, however, the Spanish presence only began to express with evangelization, began at the end of 17th century, and its dominance began to take shape in the 18th century. The conscious discovery of Palau came a century later in 1697 and they were interviewed by the Czech missionary Paul Klein on 28 December 1696. Klein was able to draw the first map of Palau based on the Palauans representation of their home islands that made with an arrangement of 87 pebbles on the beach
7.
Spanish East Indies
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The Spanish East Indies were the Spanish territories in Asia-Pacific from 1565 until 1899. They comprised the Philippines, the Mariana Islands, the Caroline Islands, Cebu was the first seat of government, later transferred to Manila. From 1565 to 1821 these territories, together with the Spanish West Indies, were administered through the Viceroyalty of New Spain based in Mexico City, the King of Spain traditionally styled himself King of the East and West Indies. After Mexican independence, they were ruled directly from Madrid, administrative affairs of the Spanish East Indies were handled by the Captaincy General of the Philippines and the Real Audiencia of Manila. The few remaining islands were ceded to the United States when the Treaty of Washington was ratified in 1901, Spanish contact began on 6 March 1521, when a Spanish expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan reached the Mariana Islands. He named Guam and the other islands Islas de los Ladrones because the natives came aboard his galleon, the expedition later continued its journey west and reached the island of Homonhon in the eastern Philippines on 16 March, with only 150 crewmen. There they were able to communicate with the local peoples because the Malayan interpreter, Enrique of Malacca, Miguel López de Legazpi set out from Mexico, and established the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines in 1565, which became the town of San Miguel in present-day Cebu. In 1571, the city of Manila was founded and made seat of the Spanish Captaincy General of the Philippines and these and other Asian territories claimed by the Spanish crown were to be governed from the Viceroyalty of New Spain in Mexico City. The Manila-Acapulco galleons shipped products gathered from both Asia-Pacific and the Americas, such as silk, spices, silver, gold and other Asian-Pacific islander products to Mexico, in 1606, the Spaniards established some form of trade links with the Maluku Islands and remained until 1663. Contacts with Japan were also established and Sebastián Vizcaíno was sent as ambassador in 1611, on the north eastern coastal region of Taiwan, the Spaniards built Fort Santo Domingo near Keelung in 1626 and a mission in Tamsui in 1628, which they occupied until 1642. In 1668, Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores established the first mission on Guam, in 1762 British troops briefly captured the city of Manila during the Seven Years War. The British promised support for an uprising led by Diego Silang and his wife Gabriela, under the peace settlement Manila was exchanged, along with British-occupied Havana, for Florida and Minorca. It was handed back to Spanish authorities in April 1764, the Seven Years War prompted Charles III to initiate extensive governmental reforms throughout the overseas possessions. An intendencia was established in Manila in 1784 to handle the government finances, in a similar vein, to promote innovation and education among the residents of the islands, Governor-General José Basco y Vargas established the Economic Society of the Friends of the Country. For over 256 years, the Spanish East Indies were governed by a general. All economic matters of the Philippines were managed by the Viceroyalty of New Spain, in 1821 the New Spanish Viceroyalty collapsed following the Mexican War of Independence, which resulted in the First Mexican Empire. In 1574 the Captaincy General of the Philippines was created as a dependency of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, Islas Carolinas Islas Marianas Islas Palau The Spanish used several names that are not currently used. Gran Moluca for the island of Mindanao and Nueva Castilla for Luzon, because Spanish interest in the region was primarily focused on its use as a base for trade with East Asia, direct Spanish control over the area expanded slowly
8.
Philippines
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The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. The Philippines has an area of 300,000 square kilometers, and it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. As of 2013, approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelagos earliest inhabitants and they were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Islamic nations occurred, then, various competing maritime states were established under the rule of Datus, Rajahs, Sultans or Lakans. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in Homonhon, Eastern Samar in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization, in 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. This resulted in Roman Catholicism becoming the dominant religion, during this time, Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with Acapulco in the Americas using Manila galleons. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, since then, the Philippines has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by a non-violent revolution. It is a member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. It also hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank, the Philippines was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of Leyte, eventually the name Las Islas Filipinas would be used to cover all the islands of the archipelago. Before that became commonplace, other such as Islas del Poniente. The official name of the Philippines has changed several times in the course of its history, during the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the establishment of the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the name Philippines began to appear, since the end of World War II, the official name of the country has been the Republic of the Philippines. The metatarsal of the Callao Man, reliably dated by uranium-series dating to 67,000 years ago is the oldest human remnant found in the archipelago to date and this distinction previously belonged to the Tabon Man of Palawan, carbon-dated to around 26,500 years ago. Negritos were also among the archipelagos earliest inhabitants, but their first settlement in the Philippines has not been reliably dated, there are several opposing theories regarding the origins of ancient Filipinos
9.
Kosrae
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Kosrae, formerly known as Kusaie, is an island in Federated States of Micronesia. Kosraes land area is 110 square kilometres, sustaining 6,600 people, mt. Finkol is the highest point at 634 metres. Kosrae, the easternmost of the Caroline Islands, has a population of 6,616 and it is located approximately 600 km north of the equator, between Guam and the Hawaiian Islands. It has an area of approximately 110 km2. Some parts of the island are experiencing coastal erosion, Kosrae is a high island that is largely unspoiled. It is becoming a destination for divers and hikers. The reefs are largely untouched, and contain miles of hard corals, dense vegetation and steep mountains keep the island largely undeveloped. Viewed from the ocean, the distinct shape resembles a female body. This has led to the island being called the island of the sleeping lady and it is served by United Air Lines Island Hopper 737–800 flights between Hawaii and Guam, stopping at other FSM and Marshallese destinations on the way. Nauru Airlines also connect weekly with their fleet of 737–300 jets to Brisbane in Australia and Nadi in Fiji. There is one significant nearshore island within the reef around Kosrae, which is Lelu Island, and it is only 2 square kilometres in area. It belongs to Lelu municipality, which includes the area around Tofol, other very small, uninhabited islands within the fringing reef are, Yen Yen and Yenasr, the airport island, Kiul, Mutunyal, Sroansak, and Srukames. The Kosrae Department of Education operates six elementary schools and one high school. There is also one private school, in July 2011, Kosrae DOE embraced the One Laptop per Child programme, distributing 720 XO computers to children in its public elementary schools, becoming the first State of Micronesia to do so. The official language of Kosrae is Kosraean, although the English language may also be used in government discourse, according to the Constitution of Kosrae, English is held to have equal authority to Kosraean. However, the language of the FSM is English. Archaeological evidence shows that the island was settled at least by the years of the first millennium AD. This includes the city of Leluh that existed from about 1250 AD and it featured burial pyramids for the nobility
10.
Atoll
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An atoll, sometimes called a coral atoll, is a ring-shaped coral reef including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands/cays on the rim, the coral of the atoll often sits atop the rim of an extinct seamount or volcano which has eroded or subsided partially beneath the water. The lagoon forms over the crater or caldera while the higher rim remains above water or at shallow depths that permit the coral to grow. For the atoll to persist, continued erosion or subsidence must be at a slow enough to permit reef growth upwards and outwards to replace the lost height. The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu, meaning an administrative subdivision, the distribution of atolls around the globe is instructive, most of the worlds atolls are in the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean has no large groups of atolls, other than eight atolls east of Nicaragua that belong to the Colombian department of San Andres and Providencia in the Caribbean. Reef-building corals will thrive only in tropical and subtropical waters of oceans and seas. The northernmost atoll of the world is Kure Atoll at 28°24 N, the southernmost atolls of the world are Elizabeth Reef at 29°58 S, and nearby Middleton Reef at 29°29 S, in the Tasman Sea, both of which are part of the Coral Sea Islands Territory. The next southerly atoll is Ducie Island in the Pitcairn Islands Group, at this latitude coral reefs would not develop without the warming waters of the Gulf Stream. However, Bermuda is termed a pseudo-atoll because its general form, while there is no atoll directly on the equator, the closest atoll to the Equator is Aranuka of Kiribati, with its southern tip just 12 km north of the equator. In most cases, the area of an atoll is very small in comparison to the total area. Atoll islands are low lying, with their elevations less than 5 meters, measured by total area, Lifou is the largest raised coral atoll of the world, followed by Rennell Island. More sources however list as the largest atoll in the world in terms of land area Kiritimati, the remains of an ancient atoll as a hill in a limestone area is called a reef knoll. The second largest atoll by dry land area is Aldabra with 155 km², the largest atoll in terms of island numbers is Huvadhu Atoll in the south of the Maldives with 255 islands. In 1842, Charles Darwin explained the creation of coral atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean based upon observations made during a voyage aboard the HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836. In time, subsidence carries the old volcano below the ocean surface, at this point, the island has become an atoll. Atolls are the product of the growth of marine organisms. Volcanic islands located beyond the water temperature requirements of hermatypic organisms become seamounts as they subside and are eroded away at the surface
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Caroline Islands". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "article name needed". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
