Skip to main content

Palmyra Atoll

Palmyra Atoll

Palmyra Atoll also referred to as Palmyra Island, is one of the Northern Line Islands (southeast of Kingman Reef and north of Kiribati). It is located almost due south of the Hawaiian Islands, roughly one-third of the way between Hawaii and American Samoa. North America is about 3,300 miles (5,300 kilometers) northeast and New Zealand the same distance southwest, placing the atoll at the approximate center of the Pacific Ocean. The land area is 4.6 sq mi (12 km2), with about 9 miles (14 km) of sea-facing coastline and reef. There is one boat anchorage known as West Lagoon, accessible from the sea by a narrow artificial channel. It is the second-to-northernmost of the Line Islands, and one of three American islands in the archipelago, along with Jarvis Island and Kingman Reef. Palmyra Atoll is part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, the world's largest marine protected area. The atoll is composed of submerged sand flats along with dry land and reefs. It consists of three lagoons separated by coral reefs. The western reef terrace is one of the biggest shelf-reefs, with dimensions of 2 by 3 miles (3.2 by 4.8 km). Over 150 species of coral inhabit Palmyra Atoll, double the number recorded in Hawaii. Palmyra Atoll has no permanent population. It is administered as an incorporated unorganized territory, presently the only one of its kind, by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior. The territory hosts a variable transient population of 4–25 staff and scientists employed by various departments of the U.S. government and by The Nature Conservancy, as well as a rotating mix of Palmyra Atoll Research Consortium scholars. Submerged portions of the atoll are administered by the Department of the Interior's Office of Insular Affairs.
 

Labels:
Location: Palmyra Atoll, United States Minor Outlying Islands

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chilean Blob

Chilean Blob The Chilean Blob was a large mass of tissue found on Pinuno Beach in Los Muermos, Chile in July 2003. It weighed 13 tonnes (14 tons) and measured 12 metres (39 ft) across. The Chilean Blob made headlines around the world because biologists were initially unable to identify it, and were speculating that it was the remains of some species of giant octopus previously unknown to science. In June 2004, DNA found in the blob was found to match that of a sperm whale: the blob was a large mass of adipose tissue, the partial remains of a dead sperm whale.  
Post a Comment
Read more

Panama Creature

Panama Creature The "Panama Creature" (also variously referred to as the "Panama Monster", "Panama ET" "Cerro Azul Monster", "Blue Stream Monster" or "Blue Hill Horror") refers to a carcass photographed near the town of Cerro Azul, Panama, in September 2009. After the animal was discovered and reputedly killed by a group of teenagers, photographs of the corpse were given to Telemetro, a Panamanian television station. The story and pictures circulated, and comparisons to the Montauk Monster were made. There was speculation about the identity of the creature, with suggestions including a hairless sloth, an alien species and a creature new to science. A biopsy performed by the National Environmental Authority of Panama on the remains a few days after the creature's discovery concluded that the corpse was in fact that of a male brown-throated sloth. The odd appearance had been caused by underwater decomposition, which had resu...
Post a Comment
Read more

St. Augustine Monster

 St. Augustine Monster The St. Augustine Monster is the name given to a large carcass, originally postulated to be the remains of a gigantic octopus, that washed ashore on the United States coast near St. Augustine, Florida in 1896. It is sometimes referred to as the Florida Monster or the St. Augustine Giant Octopus and is one of the earliest recorded examples of a globster. The species that the carcass supposedly represented has been assigned the binomial names Octopus giganteus (Latin for "giant octopus") and Otoctopus giganteus (Greek prefix: oton = "ear"; "giant-eared octopus"), although these are not valid under the rules of the ICZN. A 1995 analysis concluded that the St. Augustine Monster was a large mass of the collagenous matrix of whale blubber, likely from a sperm whale.
Post a Comment
Read more