Kiritimati
|
NASA photograph of Kiritimati Island, taken from the International Space Station. |
Kiritimati—also called
Christmas Island but not to be confused with
Christmas Island in the
Indian Ocean—is a
Pacific Ocean atoll in the northern
Line Islands and part of the
Republic of Kiribati. The island has the greatest land area of any
coral atoll in the world:
642 square kilometres (248 sq mi). Indeed, it comprises over 70% of the total land area of Kiribati, a nation encompassing 33 Pacific atolls.
Kiritimati was discovered by Europeans on
December 24 1777 by
Captain James Cook.
Kiritimati is the
Gilbertese spelling of "
Christmas" (in Gilbertese, the "ti" combination is pronounced "s"; thus "kee-rees-mass").
During World War II, the U. S. Army Air Forces maintained a weather station and a communications center on the atoll. They were serviced by an airstrip which also provided rest and refueling facilities for planes traveling between Hawaii and the South Pacific. There was also a small civilian radio-meteorological reseach station.
[ Personal recollections of member of weather station.]Presently, there are four
villages on the island:
London (the main village and port facility),
Tabwakea,
Banana (Banana Wells), and
Poland. Banana is near the
airport (Cassidy Airport) but may be relocated closer to London to prevent contamination of the groundwater. Many of the place names in the island date from Father Emmanuel Rougier, a
French priest who
leased the island from
1917 to
1939 and planted some 800,000
coconut trees there. He lived in his
Paris house (now, only small ruins) located across the
Burgle Channel (main entrance to the
lagoon) from
Londres (or London, which he established as a
port).
La colline de Joe (Joe's Hill) is the highest point on the atoll (less than 12 m or 40 ft above sea level) near Artemia Corners.
The
British tested their first
H-Bomb here in May
1957, and the
United States conducted
Operation Dominic here in 1962. Some
toponyms come from the
nuclear test period (like Banana and Main Camp). There is a
Japanese
NASDA satellite tracking station and an abandoned airfield (Aeon Field) proposed for reuse by the Japanese for their now-canceled
HOPE-X project (a space shuttle).
The island has about 5,000 inhabitants and 2 representatives in the
Maneaba ni Maungatabu. The ministry of the Line and Phoenix islands is located in London. There are also two new
high schools on the road between Tabwakea and Banana: one
Catholic and one
Protestant.
Previously (ended on
April 26 2004) a charter flight by
Air Kiribati (done by
Aloha Airlines) connected Christmas to
Honolulu every week with a
Boeing 737. Provisional jets shortly replaced it. Since October
2005,
Fijian Air Pacific makes a weekly stop between Honolulu and
Nadi in Fiji. A large and modern
jetty, handling some cargo, was built by the Japanese.
The
flora and the
fauna are unique, but the island is affected by regular, severe
droughts. Most of the atoll's food supplies have to be imported, although marine fish are plentiful. Exports of the atoll include
aquarium fish,
coconuts, and
seaweed. Additionally, there is a small amount of
tourism.
*Kiritimati is the first inhabited place on Earth to experience the
New Year each year (see
Caroline Atoll, Kiribati).
*Kiritmati is also located very close the Boeing-led
Sea Launch satellite launching spot
zh-yue:基里地馬地島
