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ISO 3166-1:UM

ISO 3166-1:UM

The United States Minor Outlying Islands, defined by ISO 3166-1, consists of the following list of islands:
- Baker Island
- Howland Island
- Jarvis Island
- Johnston Atoll
- Kingman Reef
- Midway Atoll
- Navassa Island
- Palmyra Atoll
- Wake Island All of these islands are in the Pacific Ocean except Navassa Island, which is in the Caribbean Sea. None of them have permanent inhabitants currently. They are collectively represented by the two-letter code UM. They are grouped together entirely as a statistical convenience; they are not administered collectively, nor do they all share a single cultural or political history (other than that they are all currently uninhabited islands under the sovereignty of the United States). Their Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is .um. Category:Insular areas of the United States ko:미국령 원양 소도서군 ja:アメリカ領太平洋諸島

ISO 3166-1

ISO 3166-1 as part of the ISO 3166 standard provides codes for the names of countries and dependent areas. It was first published in 1974 by the International Organization for Standardization and defines three different codes for each area:
- ISO 3166-1 alpha-2, a two-letter system with many applications, most notably the Internet top-level domains (ccTLD) for countries.
- ISO 3166-1 alpha-3, a three-letter system.
- ISO 3166-1 numeric, a three-digit numerical system, is identical to that defined by the United Nations Statistical Division. A country or territory generally gets new alpha codes if its name changes, whereas a new numeric code is associated with a change of boundaries. Some codes in each series are reserved, for various reasons; obsolete codes may be kept as reserved, borders may be considered likely to change, and some overseas territories have reserved codes of their own. ISO 3166-1 is not the only standard for country codes. The IOC and FIFA have their own lists (see List of IOC country codes and List of FIFA country codes) of three-letter codes which mostly correspond to the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes.

ISO 3166-1 code list

The following is intended to be a complete ISO 3166-1 encoding code list in alphabetical order by country names (official short names in English designated by ISO). The table includes formal codes only. For reserved codes, see ISO 3166-1 alpha-2#ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 Reserved Code Elements list and ISO 3166-1 alpha-3#Reserved Code Elements list. ISO 3166-1 does not have numeric reserved codes.

Newsletters

Changes to ISO 3166-1 are announced in periodic newsletters, of which 10 have been released to date: # Published 1998-02-05: change of name for Samoa, available in [http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv1-ws.html English] and [http://www.iso.org/iso/fr/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv1-ws.html French] # Published 1999-10-01: change of name for Occupied Palestinian Territory, available in [http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv2-ps.html English] and [http://www.iso.org/iso/fr/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv2-ps.html French] # Published 2002-02-01: change of alpha-3 Code Element for Romania, available in [http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv3-rou.html English] and [http://www.iso.org/iso/fr/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv3-rou.html French] # Published 2002-05-20: change of name for various countries, available in [http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv4-div.html English] and [http://www.iso.org/iso/fr/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv4-div.html French] # Published 2002-05-20: change of name and codes for East Timor, available in [http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv5-tl.html English] and [http://www.iso.org/iso/fr/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv5-tl.html French] # Published 2002-11-15: change of name and codes for Timor-Leste, available in [http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv6-tl.html English] and [http://www.iso.org/iso/fr/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv6-tl.html French] # Published 2002-11-15: change of official name of Comoros , available in [http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv7-km.html English] and [http://www.iso.org/iso/fr/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv7-km.html French] # Published 2003-07-23: deletion of Yugoslavia, inclusion of Serbia and Montenegro, available in [http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv8-cs.html English] and [http://www.iso.org/iso/fr/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv8-cs.html French] # Published 2004-02-13: new entry for Åland Islands, available in [http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv9-ax.html English] and [http://www.iso.org/iso/fr/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv9-ax.html French] # Published 2004-04-26: change of name for Afghanistan and Åland Islands, available in [http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv10-div.html English] and [http://www.iso.org/iso/fr/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv10-div.html French]

Reference

Information on reserved codes taken from "Reserved code elements under ISO 3166-1" published by Secretariat of ISO/TC 46, ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency, 2001-02-13, available on request from ISO 3166 MA.

External links

- [http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/index.html ISO 3166/MA] – ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency at the International Organization for Standardization – includes up-to-date lists of two-letter codes.
- [http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49.htm United Nations Statistics Division – Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use] – includes three-letter and numeric codes.
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/appendix/appendix-d.html CIA World Factbook – Cross-Reference List of Country Data Codes] (public domain)
- [http://www.davros.org/misc/iso3166.html a list of ISO 3166-1 codes] (including three-letter and numeric codes), and includes information about changes that have been made over the years.
- [http://www.wout-bosteels.be/countries.xml an xml document] containing country codes and country names in 7 languages.
- [http://tobiasconradi.com/geography/ CSV-file and website] in unicode, containing codes and country names in 30 languages 1 Category:Lists of countries Category:Country codes ko:ISO 3166-1 th:ISO 3166-1

Baker Island

right Baker Island is an uninhabited atoll located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean at , about 3,100 km (1,675 nautical miles) southwest of Honolulu. Part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands, it is about one-half of the way from Hawaii to Australia. Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge consists of the 405 acre (1.64 km²) island and a surrounding 30,504 acres (123.45 km²) of submerged land. The island is now a National Wildlife Refuge managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an insular area under the U.S. Department of the Interior. Baker Island is an unincorporated and unorganized territory of the U.S.. Its defense is the responsibility of the United States; though uninhabited, it is visited annually by the U.S. Coast Guard.

History

The United States of America took possession of the island in 1857, claimed under the Guano Islands Act of 1856, and it became a British Overseas Territory from 1886 to 1934. Its guano deposits were mined by U.S. and British companies during the second half of the 19th century. In 1935, a short-lived attempt at colonization was begun on this island, with a population of four in the settlement Meyerton—as well as on nearby Howland Island—but was disrupted by World War II and thereafter abandoned. Feral cats were eradicated from the island in 1964. American civilians evacuated in 1942 after Japanese air and naval attacks during World War II; occupied by U.S. military during World War II, but abandoned after the war; public entry is by special-use permit from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service only and generally restricted to scientists and educators; a cemetery and remnants of structures from early settlement are located near the middle of the west coast; visited annually by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (July 2000 est.) See also the History of the Pacific Islands.

Geography

History of the Pacific Islands Located in the North Pacific Ocean at , the island is tiny at just 1.64 km² (405 acres) and 4.8 km of coastline. The climate is equatorial, with little rainfall, constant wind and a burning sun. The terrain is low-lying and sandy: a coral island surrounded by a narrow fringing reef with a depressed central area. The highest point is 8 meters above sea level. There are no natural fresh water resources. The island is treeless, with sparse vegetation consisting of grasses, prostrate vines, low growing shrubs and some scattered ruins. The island is primarily a nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds, and marine wildlife. The U.S. claims an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles (370 km) and territorial sea of 12 nautical miles (22 km). The island's Time zone: UTC -12

Transportation

There are no ports or harbors, with anchorage available only offshore. There is one boat landing area along the middle of the west coast. There is an abandoned World War II runway (1,665 m) which is completely covered with vegetation and unusable. Natural hazards: The narrow fringing reef surrounding the island can be a maritime hazard and there is a day beacon near the middle of the west coast

External links

- [http://pacificislands.fws.gov/wnwr/pbakernwr.html Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge]
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/fq.html Baker Island] This article incorporated material from the CIA World Factbook 2000. Update as needed.
- [http://users.metro2000.net/~stabbott/RHBJ.htm Republic of Howland, Baker and Jarvis] : A fictional alternative reality Micronation. Category:Insular areas of the United States Category:Islands Category:National Wildlife Refuges in the United States zh-min-nan:Baker-tó ja:ベーカー島

Howland Island

Howland Island is an uninhabited atoll located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean at , about 3,100 km (1,675 nautical miles) southwest of Honolulu. It is about one-half of the way from Hawaii to Australia and is an unincorporated, unorganized territory of the United States, part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands. Howland Island National Wildlife Refuge consists of the 455 acre (1.84 km²) island and the surrounding 32,074 acres (129.80 km²) of submerged land. The island is now a National Wildlife Refuge managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an insular area under the U.S. Department of the Interior. The island has no economic activity and is perhaps best known as the island Amelia Earhart never reached. Defense is the responsibility of the United States and the island is visited annually by the U.S. Coast Guard.

History

Sparse remnants of trails and other artifacts indicate a sporadic early Polynesian presence but Howland Island was uninhabited when the United States took possession of it in 1857 through claims under the Guano Islands Act of 1856. Its guano deposits were mined by American and British companies during the second half of the 19th century. In 1935, a short-lived attempt at colonization was begun with a rotating population of four young civilians from Hawaii in the settlement Itascatown (a cluster of no more than two or three small structures named after the U.S. Coast Guard vessel that brought them and made regular visits during that era). Similar projects were started on nearby Baker Island and on Jarvis Island, but these were disrupted by World War II and abandoned. Howland Island was a refueling stop for American pilot Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan on their round-the-world flight in 1937. They took off for the island from Lae, New Guinea, but were never seen again. A Japanese air attack killed two of the colonists at the beginning of U.S. involvement in World War II and the two survivors were evacuated in early 1942. The island was then occupied by the U.S. military but abandoned after the war. Public entry to the island is by special-use permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service only and is generally restricted to scientists and educators. See also: History of the Pacific Islands

Geography

History of the Pacific Islands Located in the North Pacific Ocean at (), the island is tiny at just 1.84 km² (455 acres) and 6.4 km of coastline. The island has an elongated shape on a north-south axis. The climate is equatorial, with little rainfall and a burning sun. Temperatures are moderated somewhat by a constant wind from the east. The terrain is low-lying and sandy: a coral island surrounded by a narrow fringing reef with a depressed central area. The highest point is three meters above sea level. There are no natural fresh water resources. The landscape features scattered grasses along with prostrate vines and low-growing shrubs. For many years descriptions of the island mentioned a small group of trees at its center but a visitor accompanying a scientific expedition in 2000 reported seeing "a flat bulldozed plain of coral sand, without a single tree" and some traces of building ruins. Howland is primarily a nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds, and marine wildlife. The U.S. claims an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles (370 km) and a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles (22 km). The island's time zone is UTC -12

Transportation

There are no harbors or docks. The reefs may pose a hazard. There is one boat landing area along the middle of the sandy beach on the west coast. An airstrip was constructed in 1937 for a scheduled refuelling stop for Amelia Earhart's ill-fated flight. Later named Kamakaiwi Field after one of the colonists who died as a result of the first Japanese attack, the facility was seldom if ever used, suffered repeated damage during World War II and has all but disappeared. Earhart Light is a striped day beacon (or navigational landmark) near the boat landing at the middle of the west coast. It was partially destroyed during World War II by a Japanese air attack, but was later rebuilt and named in Earhart's memory. By 2000 the Earhart beacon was said to be crumbling and hadn't been painted in decades.

Alternate History

Howland and neighboring Baker and Jarvis Islands are the subject of an Internet-based alternate history hoax developed by Stephen Abbott, a [http://www.sacomm.com/ political consultant] and apparently [http://users.metro2000.net/~stabbott/AH.htm prolific author in this genre]. Abbott's fictional [http://users.metro2000.net/~stabbott/RHBJ.htm Official Government Website of the Republic of Howland Baker and Jarvis ] describes (mostly without photography) a populated, thriving tourist destination on Howland and Baker Islands, including a [http://users.metro2000.net/~stabbott/hbFacts.htm faked CIA World Factbook entry], elaborate information on travel and tourism as well as imaginary air and sea travel information. Abbott gives this fiction its greatest depth with an alternate history and government, complete with a constitution and supplemented by simulated local news coverage. Although the website previously contained a diminutively linked, vaguely titled (Too good to be true? Click here and find out) [http://users.metro2000.net/~stabbott/RHBIexplained.html explanation and disclaimer], by September 2005 this link was much more prominently displayed on the main page.

External links

- [http://www.janeresture.com/howland/ Geography, history and nature on Howland Island]
- [http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/WEBLIGHTHOUSES/LHPACIFIC.html Howland Island day beacon]
- [http://pacificislands.fws.gov/wnwr/pbakernwr.html Howland Island National Wildlife Refuge]
- [http://www.pbs.org/odyssey/odyssey/20001204_log_transcript.html 'Voyage of the Odyssey'] - pictures and travelogue Category:Insular areas of the United States Category:Islands Category:National Wildlife Refuges in the United States Category:Oceanic countries zh-min-nan:Howland-tó ja:ハウランド島

Johnston Atoll

Johnston Atoll is a 2.8 km² atoll in the North Pacific Ocean at , about one-third of the way from Hawai'i to the Marshall Islands. Johnston Island and Sand Island are natural islands, which have been expanded by coral dredging. North Island (Akau) and East Island (Hikina) are artificial islands formed from coral dredging. artificial island Johnston is an unincorporated territory of the United States, part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands, administered from Washington, D.C. by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service of the United States Department of the Interior as part of the National Wildlife Refuge system. The defense of Johnston Atoll is managed by the military of the United States. The islands are not open to the public. The climate is tropical but generally dry. Consistent northeast trade winds have little seasonal temperature variation. With elevation ranging from sea level to 5 m at Summit Peak, the islands contain some low-growing vegetation on mostly flat terrain and no natural fresh water resources.

History

The island was named for Captain James Johnston who claimed its official discovery on December 10, 1807. The Johnston Atoll was claimed by both the United States and the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1858. The Atoll's guano deposits, mined by U.S. interests operating under the Guano Islands Act, were worked until depletion at about 1890. On July 29, 1926, President Calvin Coolidge established the Johnston Atoll as a Federal bird refuge and placed it under the control of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. On December 29, 1934 President Franklin D. Roosevelt transferred control of Johnston Atoll to the U.S. Navy to establish an air station and also to the Department of the Interior to administer the bird refuge. In 1936, the U.S. Navy began developing a seaplane base, an airstrip and refueling facilities on the atoll. It was designated as a Naval Defensive Sea Area and Airspace Reservation on February 14, 1941. Johnston Atoll was shelled by Japan in World War II. The area was subsequently a U.S. nuclear weapons test site and later the site of the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (JACADS). Between 1958 and 1975 several sounding rockets were launched from Johnston Island. There were also rockets launched for nuclear tests related to a project called Starfish Prime. The launchpad was at . Starfish Prime The atoll has no indigenous inhabitants, although during the latter twentieth century there was an average of 1,100 U.S. military and civilian contractor personnel present at any given time. The central means of transport to the island was the airport which had a paved, military runway. The islands were wired with 13 outgoing and 10 incoming commercial telephone lines, a 60-channel submarine cable, 22 DSN circuits by satellite, an Autodin with standard remote terminal, a digital telephone switch, the Military Affiliated Radio System (MARS station), a UHF/VHF air-ground radio, and a link to the Pacific Consolidated Telecommunications Network (PCTN) satellite. The atoll's economic activity was limited to providing services to U.S. military personnel and contractors located on the island. All food and manufactured goods were imported. The base had six 25 MW generators supplied by the base's support contractor. The runway facility was also available to commercial airlines for emergency landings (a fairly common event). By the end of 2003 the U.S. government transfered jurisdiction of the atoll to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Most structures and living facilities (along with those used in the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Destruction System (JACADS) were removed and the runway was visually marked as closed. The atoll was placed up for auction via the U.S. General Services Administration in 2005. [http://propertydisposal.gsa.gov/Property/PropforSale/ShowProperty.ASP?PropertyID=1273] See also: Guano Islands Act

External links

- http://www.astronautix.com/sites/johsland.htm Former Johnston Island resident, S. Hound Category:Insular areas of the United States Category:Islands Category:National Wildlife Refuges in the United States Category:Nuclear test sites Category:Pacific Ocean atolls zh-min-nan:Johnston Khoân-chiau ja:ジョンストン島

Midway Atoll

right right Midway Atoll (also known as Midway Island or Midway Islands, Hawaiian: Pihemanu) is a 6.2 square kilometer atoll located in the North Pacific Ocean (near the northwestern end of the Hawaiian archipelago) at , about one-third of the way between Honolulu and Tokyo. It is less than 150 miles east of the International Date Line and is about 2,800 miles west of San Francisco and 2,200 miles east of Japan. It consists of a ring-shaped barrier reef and several sand islets. The two significant pieces of land, Sand Island and Eastern Island, provide habitat for hundreds of thousands of seabirds. The atoll, which has no indigenous inhabitants, is an unincorporated territory of the United States, part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands, designated an insular area under the authority of the U.S. Department of the Interior. It is a National Wildlife Refuge administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The visitor program closed in January 2002 and there are no facilities at the present time for receiving visitors. However, visitors able to provide their own transportation can contact the refuge manager for information about visiting the atoll. The economy is derived solely from governmental sources. All food and manufactured goods must be imported. Midway lies nearly halfway between North America and Asia. It also lies almost halfway around the earth from Greenwich, England. Midway is best known as the location of the Battle of Midway, fought in World War II on June 4, 1942. The nearby United States Navy defeated a Japanese attack against the "Midway Islands," marking a turning point in the war in the Pacific theater.

Geography and geology

PacificMidway Atoll is part of a chain of volcanic islands, atolls, and seamounts extending from Hawai'i up to the tip of the Aleutian Islands and known as the Hawaii-Emperor chain. Midway was formed roughly 28 million years ago when the seabed underneath it was over the same hotspot from which the Island of Hawai'i is now being formed. In fact, Midway was once a shield volcano perhaps as large as the island of Lana'i. As the volcano piled up lava flows building up the island, the load of it depressed the crust and the island slowly subsided over a period of millions of years, a process known as isostatic adjustment. As the island mass subsided, a coral reef around the former volcanic island was able to maintain itself near sea level by growing upwards. That reef is now over 160 m (516 ft) thick (Ladd, Tracey, & Gross, 1967; in the lagoon, 384 m or 1261 ft), comprised of mostly post-Miocene limestones with a layer of upper Miocene (Tertiary g) sediments and lower Miocene (Tertiary e) limestones at the bottom overlying the basalts. What remains today is a shallow water atoll about 10 kilometers across. The islands of Midway Atoll have been extensively altered as a result of human habitation. Starting in 1869 with a project to blast the reefs and create a port on Sand Island, the ecology of Midway has been changing. Birds native to other NWHI islands, such as the Laysan Rail and Laysan Finch, were released at Midway. Ironwood trees from Australia were planted to act as windbreaks. Seventy-five percent of the 200 species of plants on Midway are introduced. The FWS has recently continued this trend by introducing the Laysan duck to the island, while, at the same time, extending efforts to exterminate other introduced species. The atoll has some 32 kilometers of roads, 7.8 kilometers of pipelines, one port (on Sand Island, which is closed to public use), and two runways (both paved, around 2000 meters long). As of 2004, the airfield at Midway Atoll has been designated as an emergency diversion airport for aircraft flying under ETOPS rules. The FWS plans to close all airport operations on 22 November 2004. After that time, no public visitation at all will be allowed.

History

The atoll was discovered July 5, 1859 by Captain N.C. Middlebrooks, though he was most commonly known as Captain Brooks, of the sealing ship Gambia. The islands were named the "Middlebrook Islands". Brooks claimed Midway for the United States under the Guano Islands Act of 1856, which authorized Americans to temporarily occupy uninhabited islands to obtain guano. On August 28, 1867, Captain William Reynolds of the USS Lackawanna formally took possession of the atoll for the United States and the name changed to "Midway" some time after this. The atoll was the first offshore islands annexed by the U.S. government. Midway was the only island in the entire Hawaiian archipelago that was not later part of the State of Hawai`i. The first attempt at "settlement" was in 1871, when the Pacific Mail and Steamship Company started a project of blasting and dredging a ship channel through the reef to the lagoon using money put up by the U.S. Congress. The purpose was to establish a mid-ocean coaling station avoiding the high taxes imposed at ports controlled by the Hawaiians. The project was shortly a complete failure, and the USS Saginaw, evacuating the last of the channel project's work force in October 1871, then ran aground at Kure Atoll, stranding all aboard. In 1903, workers for the Commercial Pacific Cable Company took up residence on the island as part of the effort to lay a trans-Pacific telegraph cable. These workers introduced many non-native species to the island, including the canary, cycad palm, Norfolk Island pine, ironwood, coconut, and various deciduous trees, along with ants, cockroaches, termites, centipedes, and countless others. Later that year, Roosevelt placed the atoll under the control of the Navy, in response to complaints from cable company workers about Japanese squatters and poachers. Roosevelt sent 21 U.S. Marines to stop the wanton destruction of birdlife, and to keep Midway safe as a U.S. possession. In 1935, operations began for the China Clipper, a large flying boat run by Pan American Airlines. The Clipper island-hopped from San Francisco to China, providing the fastest and most luxurious route to the Orient and bringing tourists to Midway until 1941. Only the extremely wealthy could afford a Clipper trip, which in the 1930s cost more than three times the annual salary of an average American. With Midway on the route between Honolulu and Wake Island, the large seaplanes landed in the quiet atoll waters and pulled up to a float offshore. Tourists were loaded onto a small powerboat that whisked them to a pier, where finally they would ride in "woody" wagons to the Pan Am Hotel or the "Gooneyville Lodge," named after the ubiquitous "Gooney birds" (albatrosses). The location of Midway in the Pacific became important to the military. Midway was a convenient refueling stop on transpacific flights. It also became an important stop for Navy ships. Beginning in 1940, as tensions with the Japanese were rising, Midway was deemed second only to Pearl Harbor in importance to protecting the west coast of the U.S. Airstrips, gun emplacements and a seaplane base quickly materialized on the tiny atoll. The channel was widened, and Naval Air Station Midway was completed. Architect Albert Kahn designed the Officer's quarters, the mall and several other hangars and buildings. Midway's importance to the U.S. was brought into focus on December 7, 1941 with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Six months later, on June 4, 1942, a naval battle near Midway resulted in the U.S. Navy exacting a devastating defeat of the Japanese Navy. This Battle of Midway was, by most accounts, the beginning of the end of the Japanese Navy's control of the Pacific Ocean. Midway was also an important submarine base for what was known as the Silent Service. In 1950, the Navy decommissioned Naval Air Station Midway, only to re-commission it again to support the Korean War. Thousands of troops on ships and planes stopped at Midway for refueling and emergency repairs. During the Cold War, the U.S. established a secret underwater listening post at Midway in an attempt to track Soviet submarines. These sensitive devices could pick up whale songs for miles and the facility remained top-secret until its demolition at the end of the Cold War. "Willy Victor" radar planes flew night and day as part of the DEW Line (Distant Early Warning), and antenna fields covered the islands. With about 3,500 people living on Sand Island, Midway also supported the U.S. troops during the Vietnam War. In June 1969, President Richard Nixon held a secret meeting with South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu at the Officer-in-Charge house or "Midway House." In 1978, the Navy downgraded Midway from a Naval Air Station to a Naval Air Facility and large numbers of personnel and dependents began leaving the island. With the conflict in Vietnam over, and with the introduction of reconnaissance satellites and nuclear submarines, Midway's significance to national security was diminished. Midway was designated an overlay National Wildlife Refuge on April 22, 1988 while still under the primary jurisdiction of the Navy. As part of the Base Realignment and Closure process, the Navy facility on Midway has been operationally closed since September 10, 1993, although the Navy assumed responsibility for cleaning up environmental contamination at Naval Air Facility Midway Island. On October 31, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 13022, which transferred the jurisdiction and control of the atoll to the US Department of the Interior. The US Fish and Wildlife Service assumed management of the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. The last contingent of Navy personnel left Midway on 30 June 1997, after an ambitious environmental cleanup program was completed.

Reference

Ladd, H.S., J.I. Tracey Jr., and M.G. Gross. 1967. Drilling at Midway Atoll. Science, 156(3778): 1088–1095 (26 May 1967).

External link

- [http://www.airnav.com/airport/PMDY AirNav - Henderson Field Airport] : Airport facilities and navigational aids.
- [http://www.midwayisland.com/history_ctr.html History of Midway Islands]
- [http://midway.fws.gov/intro/default.htm Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge] (this article incorporated some content from this public domain site)
- [http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/journeys/01/sep01/feature_full_page_1.html Where the Gooney Birds Are] Category:Insular areas of the United States Category:National Wildlife Refuges in the United States Category:Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Category:Oceanic countries Category:Pacific Ocean atolls zh-min-nan:Midway Khoân-chiau ja:ミッドウェー島 simple:Midway Atoll

Palmyra Atoll

Palmyra Atoll is an uninhabited, 12 km² (4.6 square miles) atoll in the Northern Pacific Ocean at . Palmyra is one of the Northern Line Islands (southeast of Kingman Reef and north of Kiribati Line Islands), located almost due south of the Hawaiian Islands, roughly halfway between Hawai‘i and American Samoa. Its 14.5 km (9 mi) of coastline has one anchorage known as West Lagoon. It consists of an extensive reef, two shallow lagoons, and some 50 sand and reef-rock islets and bars covered with vegetation—mostly coconut trees, Scaevola, and tall Pisonia trees. Most islets are not separate, but connected. Exceptions are Sand Island in the West and Barren Island in the East. The largest island is Cooper Island in the North, followed by Kaula Island in the South. The northern arch of islets is formed by Strawn Island, Cooper Island, Aviation Island, Quail Island, Whippoorwill Island, followed in the East by Eastern Island, Papala Island, and Pelican Island, and in the South by Bird Island, Holei Island, Engineer island, Marine Island, Kaula Island, Paradise Island and Home Island (clockwise). Average annual rainfall is approximately 175 inches per year. Palmyra is an incorporated territory of the United States, part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands, meaning that it is subject to all provisions contained in the United States Constitution and is permanently under U.S. sovereignty. It is also an unorganized territory as there is no Congressional act specifying how it should be governed; the only relevant law simply gives the President the discretion to administer the island as he sees fit (see Section 48 of the Hawaii Omnibus Act, Pub. L. 86–624, July 12, 1960, 74 Stat. 411, attached as a note to former sections 491 to 636 of Title 48, United States Code [http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/48/usc_sup_01_48_10_3notes.html]). Of course, the issue of Palmyra's governance is a moot point, as there is now no indigenous population nor any reason to think that there will be one in the future. It is therefore currently the only unorganized, incorporated U.S. territory. It is privately owned by The Nature Conservancy and managed as a nature reserve, but administered from Washington, D.C. by the Office of Insular Affairs, United States Department of the Interior. The surrounding waters, out to the 12 mile (22.2 km) limit, were transferred to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and designated as the Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in 2001. Defense is the responsibility of the United States. There is no current economic activity on the island. Many roads and causeways were built during World War II but are now unserviceable and overgrown. There is a roughly 2000 m (2200 yd) long, unpaved and unimproved airstrip. Various abandoned World War II-era structures are found on the island. The atoll has been manned by a group of scientists and volunteers (totalling between 4 and 20 in all) for the last several years. A series of improvements in 2004 consisted of new 2-person bungalows and showers for the island's inhabitants. Water is collected from the roof of a concrete building not far from the main living area of the scientists. Communal buildings of the settlement on the north side of Cooper Island (the only one on the atoll) consist of a common cooking/dining building adjacent to the Atoll's only dock and a kayak and scuba equipment storage building next to the launch ramp. Palmyra Atoll's location in the Pacific Ocean, where the southern and northern currents meet, means that its beautiful beaches are littered with trash and debris. Plastic mooring buoys are particularly plentiful on the beaches of Palmyra, as well as plastic bottles for soft drinks, detergents, etc. Large parts of the Atoll are closed to any sort of public access due to the threat of uncleared World War II ordnance.

History

Palmyra was first sighted in 1798 by American sea captain, Edmund Fanning of Stonington, Connecticut, while his ship the Betsy was in transit to Asia, but it was only later—on November 7, 1802—that the first western people landed on the uninhabited atoll. On that date, Captain Sawle of the American ship Palmyra was wrecked on the atoll. In 1859, Palmyra was claimed both by the American Guano Company and the United States Guano Company, but the following year it was awarded to the second company which however never started mining for guano in accordance with the Guano Islands Act of 1856. Most likely this was because there was no guano. Palmyra is located close to the Intertropical convergence zone; there is too much rain for guano to accumulate. In the meanwhile, on February 26, 1862, His Majesty Kamehameha IV (1834-1863), Fourth King of Hawai'i (1854-1863), issued a commission to Captain Zenas Bent and Johnson B. Wilkinson, both Hawaiian citizens, to sail to Palmyra and to take possession of the atoll in the king's name and on April 15, 1862 it was formally annexed to the Kingdom of Hawai'i. Captain Bent sold his rights to Palmyra to Mr. Wilkinson on December 24, 1862 and from 1862 to 1885, Kalama Wilkinson owned the island which was divided in 1885 between three heirs, two of which immediately transferred their rights to a certain Wilcox (?) who, in turn, transferred them to the Pacific Navigation Company. The latter entity made an attempt to colonize the atoll by sending a married couple to live there between September 1885 and August 1886. In 1898 Palmyra was annexed to the U.S. in conjunction with the overall U.S. annexation of Hawai'i. In the period preceding the formal annexation of the atoll by the U.S., the U.K. had shown interest for the atoll to become part of the "Guano Empire" of John T. Arundel & Co; and in 1889 the British had even formally annexed it. In order to end all further British attempts or contestations, a second, separate act of annexation of Palmyra by the U.S. was made in 1911. Afterwards, by a series of agreements signed between 1888 and 1911, the Pacific Navigation Company transferred its interests to Henry Ernest Cooper Sr. (1857–1929). The third heir of Kalama Wilkinson transferred his rights to a Mr. Ringer, whose children in turn also transferred their rights to Henry Ernest Cooper Sr. (s.a.) in 1912 and who then became the sole owner of the atoll. In 1922 Cooper sold the whole atoll except some minor islets (the 5 "home islands") to Leslie and Ellen Fullard-Leo on August 19 for $15,000.00. The latter party established the Palmyra Copra Company to exploit the coconuts growing on the atoll. Their heirs continued as proprietors afterwards, except for a period of Navy administration during World War II. In 1934, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, and Palmyra were placed under the Department of the Navy. When the U.S. Navy took over to use the atoll as a naval air base, the atoll was owned privately by Hawaiian and American citizens. After the war, the Fullard-Leos fought for the return of Palmyra all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won in 1947. When Hawai‘i achieved statehood in 1959, Palmyra was explicitly separated from the new state; prior to that point in time, Palmyra Atoll was officially part of the City & County of Honolulu. In July 1990 Peter Savio of Honolulu took a lease on the atoll until the year 2065 and formed the Palmyra Development Company. In January 2000, the atoll was purchased by The Nature Conservancy for the purposes of coral reef conservation and research. In November 2005, a worldwide team of scientists has joined with The Nature Conservancy to launch a new research station on the Palmyra Atoll in order to study climate change, disappearing coral reefs, invasive species and other global environmental threats.

The Sea Will Tell

In 1974, San Diego yachting couple, Malcom (Mac) and Eleanor (Muff) Graham sailed to Palmyra hoping to find a deserted tropical isle on which to spend an idyllic year or so. Finding numerous other "yachties" there, the Grahams were disappointed, but decided to stay. It was a fateful decision. Among the other people on Palmyra were Buck Walker and his girlfriend from Hawai‘i. Walker was a convicted drug dealer who fled Hawai‘i for life on a broken down sailboat named the Iola. Immediately, tensions real and imagined began to mount on the Graham's boat, the Sea Wind, an impeccably outfitted and beautiful ketch. The Grahams had enough food for several years, but Walker and his girlfriend were running low on staples and were planning a sail to Fanning, a nearby atoll where they thought they could use money Mac Graham paid them for their generator in exchange for the staples they needed. Sometime between August 28 and August 30, 1974, as later related by Walker's girlfriend, The Grahams disappeared from Palmyra and the young couple found their Zodiac dinghy upside down. On September 11, after days of searching and waiting for the Grahams to make their way back to their boat, Walker and his girlfriend scuttled their own boat, the Iola and then sailed for Hawai‘i on the Sea Wind. Once in Hawai‘i, the couple had the boat repainted on Kaua‘i with a new name, although it was quickly recognized in Honolulu as the Sea Wind by acquaintenances of the Grahams. The couple were arrested for theft of the boat. Both were convicted, and served time for that theft. Then in 1981, Muff Graham's bones were found next to an aluminum case on Palmyra. Evidence of dismembering and burning of the body was found. Buck Walker was subsequently tried and convicted of the murder of Eleanor Graham and is currently serving time (up for parole hearing in 2006 when he will be 68 years old). The girlfriend was tried separately in San Francisco, in a change of venue, and defended by Vincent Bugliosi. She was found not guilty of the murder of Muff Graham and resumed her life in California in the telecommunications industry. Mac Graham's body has never been found. Vince Bugliosi tells the story of the murders and trials in his 1991 book, And The Sea Will Tell (ISBN 0393029190).

External links

- [http://shadow.eas.gatech.edu/~kcobb/palmyra.html Palmyra atoll]
- [http://pacificislands.fws.gov/wnwr/palmyranwr.html Palmyra Atoll NWR]
- [http://nature.org/wherewework/asiapacific/palmyra/ The Nature Conservancy in Palmyra Atoll]
- [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=331&invol=256 The Supreme Court opinion in United States v. Fullard-Leo with a thorough history of the island's ownership] Category:Insular areas of the United States Category:Line Islands Category:National Wildlife Refuges in the United States Category:Pacific Ocean atolls zh-min-nan:Palmyra Khoân-chiau ja:パルミラ環礁

Pacific Ocean

:For other meanings of Pacific, see Pacific (disambiguation). The Pacific Ocean (from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan) is the world's largest body of water. It encompasses a third of the Earth's surface, having an area of 179.7 million km² (69.4 million sq miles). Extending approximately 15,500 km (9,600 miles) from the Bering Sea in the Arctic to the icy margins of Antarctica's Ross Sea in the south (although the Antarctic regions of the Pacific are sometimes described as part of the circumpolar Southern Ocean)the Pacific reaches its greatest east-west width at about 5°N latitude, where it stretches approximately 19,800 km (12,300 miles) from Indonesia to the coast of Colombia. The western limit of the ocean is often placed at the Strait of Malacca. The lowest point on earth—the Mariana Trench—lies some 10,911 m (35,797 ft) below sea level. The Pacific contains about 25,000 islands (more than the total number in the rest of the world's oceans combined), the majority of which are found south of the equator. (See: Pacific Islands.) Along the Pacific Ocean's irregular western margins lie many seas, the largest of which are the Celebes Sea, Coral Sea, East China Sea, Sea of Japan, South China Sea, Sulu Sea, Tasman Sea, and Yellow Sea. The Straits of Malacca joins the Pacific and the Indian Oceans on the west, and the Straits of Magellan links the Pacific with the Atlantic Ocean on the east. As the Pacific straddles the ±180° longitude where East becomes West, the Asian side of the ocean (where latitudes are E) is correctly referred to as East Pacific and the opposite side (eastwards) where latitudes are W is the West Pacific. To retain the popular "left is western" and "right is eastern" means of reference, the Western Pacific is thus the East Pacific and the Eastern Pacific the West Pacific. The International Date Line follows the ±180° longitude to the greater part of its North-South demarcation but veers far eastwards around Kiribati (Caroline Island, which, not coincidentally, was renamed Millennium Island) and westwards round the Aleutian Islands as can be seen on the map at International Date Line. For most of Ferdinand Magellan's voyage from the Straits of Magellan to the Philippines, the Portuguese explorer indeed found the ocean peaceful. However, the Pacific is not always peaceful. Many typhoons and hurricanes batter the islands of the Pacific and the lands around the Pacific rim are full of volcanoes and often rocked by earthquakes. Tsunamis, caused by underwater earthquakes, have devastated many islands and wiped out whole towns. Tsunami

Ocean bottom

The ocean floor of the central Pacific basin is relatively uniform, an abyssal plain with a mean depth of about 4270 m (14,000 ft). The major irregularities in the basin are the extremely steep-sided, flat-topped submarine peaks known as seamounts. The western part of the floor consists of mountain arcs that rise above the sea as island groups, such as the Solomon Islands and New Zealand, and deep oceanic trenches, such as the Mariana Trench, the Philippine Trench, and the Tonga Trench. Most of the trenches lie adjacent to the outer margins of the wide western Pacific continental shelf. Along the eastern margin of the Pacific Basin is the East Pacific Rise, which is a part of the worldwide mid-oceanic ridge. About 3000 km (1800 miles) across, the rise stands about 3 km (2 miles) above the adjacent ocean floor. Because a relatively small land area drains into the Pacific, and because of the ocean's immense size, most sediments are authigenic or pelagic in origin. Authigenic sediments include montmorillonite and phillipsite. Pelagic sediments derived from seawater include pelagic red clays and the skeletal remains of sea life. Terrigenous sediments eroded from land masses are confined to narrow marginal bands close to land.

Elevation extremes

- lowest point: -10,924 m (-35,840 ft). at the bottom of the Mariana Trench
- highest point: 0 m (0 ft), sea level.

Water characteristics

Water temperatures in the Pacific vary from freezing in the poleward areas to about 29°C (84°F) near the equator. Salinity also varies latitudinally. Water near the equator is less salty than that found in the mid-latitudes because of abundant equatorial precipitation throughout the year. Poleward of the temperate latitudes salinity is also low, because little evaporation of seawater takes place in these frigid areas. The surface circulation of Pacific waters is generally clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere (the North Pacific Gyre) and anti-clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. The North Equatorial Current, driven westward along latitude 15°N by the trade winds, turns north near the Philippines to become the warm Japan or Kuroshio Current. Turning eastward at about 45°N, the Kuroshio forks and some waters move northward as the Aleutian Current, while the rest turn southward to rejoin the North Equatorial Current. The Aleutian Current branches as it approaches North America and forms the base of an anti-clockwise circulation in the Bering Sea. Its southern arm becomes the chilled slow, south-flowing California Current. The South Equatorial Current, flowing west along the equator, swings southward east of New Guinea, turns east at about 50°S, and joins the main westerly circulation of the Southern Pacific, which includes the Earth-circling Antarctic Circumpolar Current. As it approaches the Chilean coast, the South Equatorial Current divides; one branch flows around Cape Horn and the other turns north to form the Peru or Humboldt Current.

Climate

Only the interiors of the large land masses of Australia, New Guinea, and New Zealand escape the pervasive climatic influence of the Pacific. Within the area of the Pacific, five distinctively different climatic regions exist: the mid-latitude westerlies, the trades, the monsoon region, the typhoon region, and the doldrums. Mid-latitude westerly air streams occur in both northerly and southerly latitudes, bringing marked seasonal differences in temperature. Closer to the equator, where most of the islands lie, steadily blowing trade winds allow for relatively constant temperatures throughout the year of 21-27°C (70-81°F). The monsoon region lies in the far western Pacific between Japan and Australia. Characteristic of this climatic region are winds that blow from the continental interior to the ocean in winter and in the opposite direction in summer. Consequently, a marked seasonality of cloudiness and rainfall occurs. Typhoons often cause extensive damage in the west and southwest Pacific. The greatest typhoon frequency exists within the triangle from southern Japan to the central Philippines to eastern Micronesia. Although more poorly defined than the other climatic regions, two major doldrum areas lie within the ocean, one located off the western shores of Central America and the other within the equatorial waters of the western Pacific. Both areas are noted for their high humidity, considerable cloudiness, light fluctuating winds, and frequent calms.

Geology

The Andesite Line is the most significant regional distinction in the Pacific. It separates the deeper, basic igneous rock of the Central Pacific Basin from the partially submerged continental areas of acidic igneous rock on its margins. The Andesite Line follows the western edge of the islands off California and passes south of the Aleutian arc, along the eastern edge of the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Kuril Islands, Japan, the Mariana Islands, the Solomon Islands, and New Zealand. The dissimilarity continues northeastward along the western edge of the Albatross Cordillera along South America to Mexico, returning then to the islands off California. Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, New Guinea, and New Zealand—all eastward extensions of the continental blocks of Australia and Asia—lie outside the Andesite Line. Within the closed loop of the Andesite Line are most of the deep troughs, submerged volcanic mountains, and oceanic volcanic islands that characterize the Central Pacific Basin. It is here that basaltic lavas gently flow out of rifts to build huge dome-shaped volcanic mountains whose eroded summits form island arcs, chains, and clusters. Outside the Andesite Line, volcanism is of the explosive type, and the Pacific Ring of Fire is the world's foremost belt of explosive volcanism.

Landmasses

The largest landmass entirely within the Pacific Ocean is the island of New Guinea— the second largest in the world. Almost all of the smaller islands of the Pacific lie between 30°N and 30°S, extending from South-east Asia to Easter Island; the rest of the Pacific Basin is almost entirely submerged. The great triangle of Polynesia, connecting Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand, encompasses the island arcs and clusters of the Cook, Marquesas, Samoa, Society, Tokelau, Tonga, and Tuamotu islands. North of the equator and west of the international date line are the numerous small islands of Micronesia, including the Caroline Islands, the Marshall Islands, and the Mariana Islands. In the southwestern corner of the Pacific lie the islands of Melanesia, dominated by New Guinea. Other important island groups of Melanesia include the Bismarck Archipelago, Fiji, New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. Islands in the Pacific Ocean are of four basic types: continental islands, high islands, coral reefs, and uplifted coral platforms. Continental islands lie outside the Andesite Line and include New Guinea, the islands of New Zealand, and the Philippines. These islands are structurally associated with the nearby continents. High islands are of volcanic origin, and many contain active volcanoes. Among these are Bougainville, Hawaii, and the Solomon Islands. The third and fourth types of islands are both the result of coralline island building. Coral reefs are low-lying structures that have built up on basaltic lava flows under the ocean's surface. One of the most dramatic is the Great Barrier Reef off northeastern Australia. A second island type formed of coral is the uplifted coral platform, which is usually slightly larger than the low coral islands. Examples include Banaba (formerly Ocean Island) and Makatea in the Tuamotu group of French Polynesia.

History and economy

See the Oceania article for information on one set of the Pacific Island states listed below here. Important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times, most notably those of Polynesians from Tahiti to Hawaii and New Zealand. The ocean was sighted by Europeans early in the 16th century, first by Vasco Núñez de Balboa (1513) and then by Ferdinand Magellan, who crossed the Pacific during his circumnavigation (1519-1522). In 1564 conquistadors crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi who sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. For the remainder of the 16th century Spanish influence was paramount, with ships sailing from Spain to the Philippines, New Guinea, and the Solomons. The Manila Galleons linked Manila and Acapulco. During the 17th century the Dutch, sailing around southern Africa, dominated discovery and trade; Abel Janszoon Tasman discovered (1642) Tasmania and New Zealand. The 18th century marked a burst of exploration by the Russians in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, the French in Polynesia, and the British in the three voyages of James Cook (to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest). Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by Great Britain and France, followed by the United States. Significant contributions to oceanographic knowledge were made by the voyages of the HMS Beagle in the 1830s, with Charles Darwin aboard; the HMS Challenger during the 1870s; the U.S.S. Tuscarora (1873-76); and the German Gazelle (1874-1876). Although the United States took the Philippines in 1898, Japan controlled the western Pacific by 1914, and occupied many other islands during World War II. By the end of that war the U.S. Pacific Fleet was the virtual master of the ocean. Seventeen independent states are located in the Pacific: Australia, Fiji, Japan, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Republic of China (Taiwan), Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Eleven of these nations have achieved full independence since 1960. The Northern Mariana Islands are self-governing with external affairs handled by the United States, and Cook Islands and Niue are in similar relationships with New Zealand. Also within the Pacific are the U.S. state of Hawaii and several island territories and possessions of Australia, Chile, Ecuador, France, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The exploitation of the Pacific's mineral wealth is hampered by the ocean's great depths. In shallow waters of the continental shelves off the coasts of Australia and New Zealand, petroleum and natural gas are extracted, and pearls are harvested along the coasts of Australia, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Nicaragua, Panama, and the Philippines, although in sharply declining volume. The Pacific's greatest asset is its fish. The shoreline waters of the continents and the more temperate islands yield herring, salmon, sardines, snapper, swordfish, and tuna, as well as shellfish. In 1986, the member nations of the South Pacific Forum declared the area a nuclear-free zone in an effort to halt nuclear testing and prevent the dumping of nuclear waste there.

Ports and harbours

- Acapulco (Mexico)
- Anchorage (United States)
- Auckland (New Zealand)
- Brisbane (Australia)
- Callao (Peru)
- Hong Kong (Hong Kong (China (PRC)))
- Honolulu (United States)
- Kobe (Japan)
- Long Beach (United States)
- Los Angeles (United States)
- Panama City (Panama)
- Portland (Oregon) (United States)
- Prince Rupert (Canada)
- San Diego (United States)
- San Francisco (United States)
- Sapporo (Japan)
- Seattle (United States)
- Shanghai (China (PRC))
- Sydney (Australia)
- Taipei (China (ROC))
- Vancouver (Canada)
- Victoria (Canada)
- Vladivostok (Russia)
- Yokohama (Japan)

Bibliography

- Barkley, R.A., Oceanographic Atlas of the Pacific Ocean (1969)
- Cameron, I., Lost Paradise (1987)
- Couper, A., Development in the Pacific Islands (1988)
- Crump, D.J., ed., Blue Horizons (1980)
- Gilbert, John, Charting the Vast Pacific (1971)
- Lower, J. Arthur, Ocean of Destiny: A Concise History of the North Pacific, 1500-1978 (1978)
- Oliver, D.L., The Pacific Islands, 3nd ed. (1989)
- Ridgell, R., Pacific Nations and Territories, 2nd ed. (1988)
- Soule, Gardner, The Greatest Depths (1970)
- Spate, O.H., Paradise Found and Lost (1988)
- Terrell, J.E., Prehistory in the Pacific Islands (1986). :Based on public domain text from US Naval Oceanographer

External links

- [http://www.epic.noaa.gov/epic/ewb/ EPIC Pacific Ocean Data Collection] Viewable on-line collection of observational data
- [http://dapper.pmel.noaa.gov/dchart/ NOAA In-situ Ocean Data Viewer] Plot and download ocean observations
- [http://www.mapsouthpacific.com/ Map South Pacific]
- [http://www.oscar.noaa.gov/datadisplay/ NOAA Ocean Surface Current Analyses - Realtime (OSCAR)] Near-realtime Pacific Ocean Surface Currents derived from satellite altimeter and scatterometer data
- [http://floats.pmel.noaa.gov/floats/ NOAA PMEL Argo profiling floats] Realtime Pacific Ocean data
- [http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/jsdisplay/ NOAA TAO El Nino data] Realtime Pacific Ocean El NIno buoy data
- [http://www.southpacific.org/ South Pacific Organizer] Category:Oceans
- zh-min-nan:Thài-pêng-iûⁿ ko:태평양 ja:太平洋 simple:Pacific Ocean th:มหาสมุทรแปซิฟิก

Internet

:For the more general networking concept, see internetworking. The Internet, or simply the Net, is the worldwide system of interconnected computer networks which makes information stored on it accessible. This information is transmitted by packet switching using a standardized Internet Protocol (IP) and many other protocols. It is made up of thousands of smaller commercial, academic, domestic and government networks. It carries various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, and the interlinked web pages and other documents of the World Wide Web.

Creation of the Internet

During the 1950s, several communications researchers realized that there was a need to allow general communication between users of various computers and communications networks. This led to research into decentralized networks, queuing theory, and packet switching. The subsequent creation of ARPANET in the United States in turn catalyzed a wave of technical developments that made it the basis for the development of the Internet. Contrary to popular myth, the DoD did not create the ARPANET so that they could communicate to the US Government after a nuclear war. The first TCP/IP wide area network was operational in 1984 when the United States' National Science Foundation (NSF) constructed a university network backbone that would later become the NSFNet. It was then followed by the opening of the network to commercial interests in 1995. Important separate networks that offered gateways into, then later merged into the Internet include Usenet, Bitnet and the various commercial and educational X.25 networks such as Compuserve and JANET. The ability of TCP/IP to work over these pre-existing communication networks allowed for a great ease of growth. Use of Internet as a phrase to describe a single global TCP/IP network originated around this time. The collective network gained a public face in the 1990s. In August 1991 CERN in Switzerland publicized the new World Wide Web project, two years after Tim Berners-Lee had begun creating HTML, HTTP and the first few web pages at CERN in Switzerland. In 1993 the Mosaic web browser version 1.0 was released, and by late 1994 there was growing public interest in the previously academic/technical Internet. By 1996 the word "Internet" was common public currency, but it referred almost entirely to the World Wide Web. Meanwhile, over the course of the decade, the Internet successfully accommodated the majority of previously existing public computer networks (although some networks such as FidoNet have remained separate). This growth is often attributed to the lack of central administration, which allows organic growth of the network, as well as the non-proprietary open nature of the Internet protocols, which encourages vendor interoperability and prevents any one company from exerting too much control over the network.

Today's Internet

FidoNets, FTP client, and Telnet client]] Apart from the complex physical connections that make up its infrastructure, the Internet is held together by bi- or multi-lateral commercial contracts (for example peering agreements) and by technical specifications or protocols that describe how to exchange data over the network. Indeed, the Internet is essentially defined by its interconnections and routing policies. In an often-cited, if perhaps gratuitously mathematical definition, Seth Breidbart once described the Internet as "the largest equivalence class in the reflexive, transitive, symmetric closure of the relationship 'can be reached by an IP packet from'". Unlike older communications systems, the Internet protocol suite was deliberately designed to be independent of the underlying physical medium. Any communications network, wired or wireless, that can carry two-way digital data can carry Internet traffic. Thus, Internet packets flow through wired networks like copper wire, coaxial cable, and fiber optic; and through wireless networks like Wi-Fi. Together, all these networks, sharing the same high-level protocols, form the Internet. The Internet protocols originate from discussions within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and its working groups, which are open to public participation and review. These committees produce documents that are known as Request for Comments documents (RFCs). Some RFCs are raised to the status of Internet Standard by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB). Some of the most used protocols in the Internet protocol suite are IP, TCP, UDP, DNS, PPP, SLIP, ICMP, POP3, IMAP, SMTP, HTTP, HTTPS, SSH, Telnet, FTP, LDAP, SSL, and TLS. Some of the popular services on the Internet that make use of these protocols are e-mail, Usenet newsgroups, file sharing, Instant Messenger, the World Wide Web, Gopher, session access, WAIS, finger, IRC, MUDs, and MUSHs. Of these, e-mail and the World Wide Web are clearly the most used, and many other services are built upon them, such as mailing lists and blogs. The Internet makes it possible to provide real-time services such as Internet radio and webcasts that can be accessed from anywhere in the world. Some other popular services of the Internet were not created this way, but were originally based on proprietary systems. These include IRC, ICQ, AIM, and Gnutella. There have been many analyses of the Internet and its structure. For example, it has been determined that the Internet IP routing structure and hypertext links of the World Wide Web are examples of scale-free networks. Similar to how the commercial Internet providers connect via Internet exchange points, research networks tend to interconnect into large subnetworks such as:
- GEANT
- Internet2
- GLORIAD These in turn are built around relatively smaller networks. See also the list of academic computer network organizations In network schematic diagrams, the Internet is often represented by a cloud symbol, into and out of which network communications can pass.

Internet culture

The Internet is also having a profound impact on work, leisure, knowledge and worldviews. worldviews]]

ICANN

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the authority that coordinates the assignment of unique identifiers on the Internet, including domain names, Internet protocol addresses, and protocol port and parameter numbers. A globally unified namespace (i.e., a system of names in which there is one and only one holder of each name) is essential for the Internet to function. ICANN is headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, but is overseen by an international board of directors drawn from across the Internet technical, business, academic, and non-commercial communities. The US government continues to have a privileged role in approving changes to the root zone file that lies at the heart of the domain name system. Because the Internet is a distributed network comprising many voluntarily interconnected networks, the Internet, as such, has no governing body. ICANN's role in coordinating the assignment of unique identifiers distinguishes it as perhaps the only central coordinating body on the global Internet, but the scope of its authority extends only to the Internet's systems of domain names, Internet protocol addresses, and protocol port and parameter numbers.

The World Wide Web

Through keyword-driven Internet research using search engines like Google, millions worldwide have easy, instant access to a vast and diverse amount of online information. Compared to encyclopedias and traditional libraries, the World Wide Web has enabled a sudden and extreme decentralization of information and data. Some companies and individuals have adopted the use of 'weblogs' or blogs, which are largely used as easily-updatable online diaries. Some commercial organizations encourage staff to fill them with advice on their areas of specialization in the hope that visitors will be impressed by the expert knowledge and free information, and be attracted to the corporation as a result. One example of this practice is Microsoft, via whose product developers publish their personal blogs in order to pique the public's interest in their work. For more information on the distinction between the World Wide Web and the Internet itself — as in everyday use the two are sometimes confused — see Dark internet where this is discussed in more detail.

Remote access

The Internet allows computer users to connect to other computers and information stores easily, wherever they may be across the world. They may do this with or without the use of security, authentication and encryption technologies, depending on the requirements. This is encouraging new ways of working from home, collaboration and information sharing in many industries. An accountant sitting at home can audit the books of a company based in another country, on a server situated in a third country that is remotely maintained by IT specialists in a fourth. These accounts could have been created by home-working book-keepers, in other remote locations, based on information e-mailed to them from offices all over the world. Some of these things were possible before the widespread use of the Internet, but the cost of private, leased lines would have made many of them infeasible in practice. An office worker away from his or her desk, perhaps the other side of the world on a business trip or a holiday, can open a remote desktop session into his or her normal office PC using a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection via the Internet. This gives him or her complete access to all their normal files and data, including e-mail and other applications, while they are away.

Collaboration

This low-cost and nearly instantaneous sharing of ideas, knowledge and skills has revolutionized some, and given rise to whole new, areas of human activity. One example of this is the collaborative development and distribution of Free/Libre/Open-Source Software (FLOSS) such as Linux, Mozilla and OpenOffice.org. See Collaborative software.

File-sharing

A computer file can be e-mailed to customers, colleagues and friends as an attachment. It can be uploaded to a website or FTP server for easy download by others. It can be put into a "shared location" or onto a file server for instant use by colleagues. The load of bulk downloads to many users can be eased by the use of "mirror" servers or peer-to-peer networking. In any of these cases, access to the file may be controlled by user authentication; the transit of the file over the Internet may be obscured by encryption and money may change hands before or after access to the file is given. The price can be paid by the remote charging of funds from, for example a credit card whose details are also passed - hopefully fully encrypted - across the Internet. The origin and authenticity of the file received may be checked by digital signatures or by MD5 message digests. These simple features of the Internet, over a world-wide basis, are changing the basis for the production, sale and distribution of many types of product, wherever they can be reduced to a computer file for transmission. This includes all manner of office documents, publications, software products, music, photography, video, animations, graphics and the other arts. This in turn is causing seismic shifts in each of the existing industry associations, such as the RIAA and MPAA, that previously controlled the production and distribution of these products.

Streaming media and VoIP

Many existing radio and television broadcasters have provided Internet 'feeds' of their live audio and video streams (for example, the BBC). They have been joined by a range of pure Internet 'broadcasters' who never had on-air licences. This means that an Internet-connected device, such as a computer or something more specific, can be used to access on-line media in much the same way as was previously possible only with a TV or radio receiver. The range of material is much wider, from pornography to highly specialised technical web-casts. The simplest equipment can allow anybody, with little censorship or licencing control, to broadcast on a worldwide basis. Time-shift viewing or listening is not a problem as the BBC have shown with their Preview, Classic Clips and Listen Again features. Web-cams can be seen as an even lower-budget extension of this phenomenon. In this case the picture may update only slowly - perhaps once every few seconds or slower, but Internet users can watch animals around an African waterhole, ships in the Panama Canal or the traffic at a local roundabout live and in real time. Video chat rooms, video conferencing, and remote controllable webcams have become popular. Some people install webcams in their bedrooms that can be accessed by other voyeurs, often with two-way sound. VoIP stands for Voice over IP, where IP refers to the Internet Protocol that underlies all Internet communication. This phenomenon began as an optional two-way voice extension to some of the Instant Messaging systems that took off around the turn of the millennium. In recent years many people and organizations have made VoIP systems as easy to use and as convenient as a normal telephone. The benefit is that, as the actual voice traffic is carried by the Internet, VoIP is free or costs much less than an actual telephone call, especially over long distances and especially for those with always-on ADSL or DSL Internet connections anyway. The disadvantages are that it is still difficult to initiate a call with someone, unless they also have a VoIP phone or are at their computer and that there are still several competing standards that are mitigating against universal acceptance. In all of these cases, existing large organisations, that have grown accustomed to regular incomes for their services, are finding increased competition in their service areas, coming directly from the Internet. While newcomers strive to make these inroads, the traditional industries are having to adapt, adopt, complain or suffer. Meanwhile the consumer in each case most probably benefits from the increased range of services and possible price reductions. Some worry about censorship and control while others see a continuing globalisation of culture and norms.

Language

Main article: English on the Internet The most prevalent language for communication on the Internet is English. This may be due to the Internet's origins or to the growing role of English as an international language. It may also be related to the poor capability of early computers to handle characters other than those in the basic Latin alphabet (see Unicode). After English (32 % of web visitors) the most-requested languages on the world wide web are Chinese 13 %, Japanese 8 %, Spanish 6 %, German 6 % and French 4 %. (From [http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm Internet World Stats]) By continent, 33 % of the world's Internet users are based in Asia, 29 % in Europe and 23 % in North America.[http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm] The Internet's technologies have developed enough in recent years that good facilities are available for development and communication in most widely used languages. However, some glitches such as mojibake still remain.

Cultural awareness

From a cultural awareness perspective, the Internet has been both an advantage and a liability. For people who are interested in other cultures it provides a significant amount of information and an interactivity that would be unavailable otherwise. However, for people who are not interested in other cultures there is some evidence indicating that the Internet enables them to avoid contact to a greater degree than ever before.

Censorship

Some countries, such as Iran and the People's Republic of China, restrict what people in their countries can see on the Internet, especially unwanted political and religious content. In the Western world, it is Germany that has the highest rate of censorship. Internet Service Providers are required by law to block some sites that contain child pornography or Nazi or Islamist propaganda. Censorship is sometimes done through government sponsored censoring filters, or by means of law or culture, making the propagation of targeted materials extremely hard. At the moment most Internet content is available regardless of where one is in the world, so long as one has the means of connecting to it.

Internet access

Germany Common methods of home access include dial-up, landline broadband (over coaxial cable, fiber optic or copper wires), Wi-Fi, satellite and cell phones. Public places to use the Internet include libr