What type of islands are the Marshall Islands?
Most of the Marshall Islands are true atolls, consisting of an irregular, oval-shaped coral reef surrounding a lagoon; the islets lie along the coral reef. The islands and islets of the Ratak chain tend to be more heavily wooded than those of the Ralik.
What are the Marshall Islands made of?
coral limestone
Geography. Most of the Marshall Islands are atolls with low coral limestone and sand islets located between an outer barrier reef and a central lagoon. More than 1,200 islets make up the atolls. Some of the lagoons are huge.
Is Nauru a volcanic island?
Nauru Island, in the central Pacific Ocean, is a raised atoll capping a volcanic seamount rising from an ocean floor depth of 4300 m. The land area is 22 km2, and the island rises to 70 m above sea level.
What is Nauru made of?
Nauru is a phosphate-rock island with rich deposits near the surface, which allowed easy strip mining operations. Its remaining phosphate resources are not economically viable for extraction.
What are the Marshall Islands known for?
The Marshall Islands form a nation of scattered atolls and remote islands, which are known for their marine life and diving opportunities. Many of the atolls are dotted with Flame of the Forest, hibiscus and different-coloured plumeria flowers. There are also at least 160 species of coral surrounding the islands.
Where is Nauru?
south-west Pacific Ocean
Nauru is a small coral island in the south-west Pacific Ocean. It sits about 1,300 kilometres to the north-east of Solomon Islands.
Is Marshall Islands an archipelago?
The Marshall Islands consist of two archipelagic island chains of 30 atolls and 1,152 islands, which form two parallel groups—the “Ratak” (sunrise) chain and the “Ralik” (sunset) chain.
How did the Marshall Islands form?
Evidence suggests that around 3,000 years ago successive waves of human migrants from Southeast Asia spread across the Western Pacific Ocean, populating its many small islands. The Marshall Islands were settled by Micronesians in the 2nd millennium BC.
What are the natural resources of Marshall Islands?
The islands have few natural resources – primarily tuna fisheries, phosphate deposits, and deep seabed materials.
What type of island is Nauru?
Nauru, island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of a raised coral island located in southeastern Micronesia, 25 miles (40 km) south of the Equator. Nauru.
How was Nauru formed?
Nauru is positioned in the Nauru Basin of the Pacific Ocean. From about 35 million years ago, a submarine volcano built up over a hotspot, and formed a 14,100-foot high (4300 meter) basalt seamount. The volcano was eroded to sea level and a coral atoll grew on top to a thickness of about 1,640 feet (500 meters).
Where are Marshall Islands?
The Marshall Islands sit atop ancient submerged volcanoes rising from the ocean floor, about halfway between Hawaii and Australia, north of Nauru and Kiribati, east of the Federated States of Micronesia, and south of the disputed U.S. territory of Wake Island, to which it also lays claim.
How was the island of Nauru formed?
Nauru is a raised coral atoll positioned in the Nauru Basin of the Pacific Ocean, on a part of the Pacific Plate that formed at a mid-oceanic ridge at 132 Ma. From mid-Eocene (35mya) to Oligocene times, a submarine volcano built up over a hotspot and formed a seamount composed of basalt.
Which resource made Nauru rich Why did they have so much of that resource?
The high grade phosphate that covered four fifths of the island was considered by outsiders as a very lucrative resource that had to be mined, particularly as fertilizer to enhance the pastures of Australia and New Zealand.
Why is it called Marshall Islands?
1788 – The Marshall Islands are given their name by British Naval Captain John William Marshall who sails through the area with convicts bound for New South Wales. 1864 – German Adolph Capelle establishes the first trading company.
What is Nauru known for?
It’s the world’s smallest island nation Measuring just eight square miles, Nauru is larger than just two other countries: the Vatican City and Monaco. There really isn’t room for much. Nauru has no protected areas, no World Heritage Sites, no rivers, and just 18 miles (30km) of roads.
Is an atoll a landform?
An atoll is a ring-shaped coral reef, island, or series of islets. An atoll surrounds a body of water called a lagoon. Sometimes, atolls and lagoons protect a central island. Channels between islets connect a lagoon to the open ocean or sea.
What is an atoll formed from?
An atoll develops from a coral reef that rings a volcanic island.