Phoenix Islands
The group of Phoenix Islands (Rawaki Islands) is one of three island groups of the island nation of Kiribati in the central Pacific Ocean. The archipelago lies south of the equator, north of Samoa, east of the Gilbert and Ellic Islands, and west of the Line Islands. It consists of eight (mostly) uninhabited, widely scattered atolls, which together cover just under 28 km², and two separate coral reefs that are permanently submerged and have no land areas. The area does not include the large lagoons (the largest being the Canton Lagoon at about 50 km²), but only those lagoons that are completely cut off from the sea and therefore constitute inland waters. The German geographer Karl Eduard Meinicke also counted the US territories of Baker Island and Howland Island, located a few hundred kilometres to the northwest, as part of the Phoenix Islands.
The eight atolls are: f1
Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap
* Lagoon areas are included in the island areas in the previous column because these lagoons have no connection to the sea and are therefore to be considered as inland waters.
In 1889, the British claimed that the Phoenix Islands were British property. In the 1930s, the U.S. and British governments fought over the islands. The atolls of Canton and Enderbury were co-administered (condominium) as U.S. military bases by the United States from 1939. Settlement was abandoned after the dry season from 1955 to 1964. Since 1979, the archipelago has been part of the island nation of Kiribati. In 2006, the Phoenix Islands and the surrounding marine area were declared the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (abbreviated PIPA) by the government of Kiribati, and its area was expanded to over 410,000 km² on 28 January 2008. In August 2010, the protected area was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
See also
- Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme (failed settlement attempt of 1938)
- Guano Islands Act, US-American law (1856), which legitimized the mining of guano by the USA.
