Northwest Hawaii Islands

Northwest Hawaii Islands
	Map of the entire Hawaiian archipelago
Waters	Pacific
archipelago	Hawaii
Geographical location	26 ° 0 ′ N , 170 ° 30 ′ W Coordinates: 26 ° 0 ′ N , 170 ° 30 ′ W
Number of islands	10 islands / atolls
Main island	Midway Islands
Total land area	14.3 km²
Residents	40 (scientist)

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands or Windward (abbreviated NWHI , English Northwestern Hawai'ian Islands or Leeward , hawaiian Papahānaumokuākea ) are a chain of small islands , atolls and coral reefs in the central Pacific Ocean .

They are located northwest of the main islands ( Southeastern Hawaiʻian Islands or Windward Islands ) belonging to Kauaʻi and Niʻihau and, with the exception of the Midway Islands , which are a so-called non-incorporated territory of the USA , belong to the US state of Hawaii . Administratively, they are assigned to Honolulu County .

geography

The Northwest Hawaiian Islands extend in the Pacific Ocean at about 25 ° north latitude for a length of approximately 2000 kilometers from about 161 ° west longitude to the date line at 180 ° longitude.

The total land area of all islands is only about 14.3 km², of which almost half (6.23 km²) is on the Midway Islands.

The island chain includes in geographical order from southeast to northwest:

Surname	Hawaiian	Area in ha	Number of islands	most densely 's population
Nihoa	Nihoa (Moku Manu)	070.0	01	-
Necker Island	Mokumanamana	018.3	01	-
French frigate shoals	Kānemilohaʻi	024.9	13	-
Gardner Pinnacles	Pūhāhonu	002.4	02	-
Maro Reef	Nalukakala	000.4	-	-
Laysan	Kauo	411.4	01	-
Lisianski	Papaʻāpoho	155.6	01	-
Pearl and Hermes Atoll	Holoikauaua	036.0	06th	-
Midway Atoll	Pihemanu	623.0	03	40 ¹⁾
Kure atoll	Mokupāpapa	086.2	02	-

¹⁾ scientist

geology

Map of the North Pacific with the Hawaii Emperor chain (center)

The island chain is of volcanic origin and part of the Hawaii-Emperor chain that extends from Kamchatka to the island of Hawaii ( Big Island ) . It emerged from the same volcanic hotspot that formed the main Hawaiian islands and is currently responsible for the growth of the island of Hawaii at the southeast end of the archipelago.

While the Big Island is still growing, all the islands in the northwest are already shrinking again. Thus, the height of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands usually decreases from southeast to northwest, northwest of the Kure Atoll then only so-called seamounts exist .

The age of the islands ranges from 7.2 million years (Nihoa) to 29.8 million years (Kure Atoll). Many of the older islands would no longer reach the surface of the sea or would be much smaller if corals had not started to build reefs on the old volcanoes. The reefs grow fast enough to compensate for the subsidence of the volcanic structures. With the old volcanoes further north this process could not take place, because north of 30 ° N the water is too cold for reef-forming corals (Kure is at 28.5 ° N).

population

Nihoa and Necker bear evidence of early Hawaiian settlement, but were uninhabited at the time of discovery by Europeans. The islands do not have a permanent population today, but the Midway Islands have around 40 residents, mostly scientific staff.

natural reserve

Map of the reserve from 1909

Because of the dramatic decline in bird populations all northwestern Hawaiian Islands were except Midway's US President already on February 3, 1909 Theodore Roosevelt bird sanctuary Hawaiian Islands Bird Reservation explained. The Midway Islands became part of the Pacific Island Wildlife Refuge Complex on October 31, 1996, after the withdrawal of the military .

After the island chain and its surrounding waters were declared a National Marine Sanctuary in 2002, now including Midways, George W. Bush proclaimed it to be Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument on June 15, 2006 . The National Monument initially covered more than 362,000 km². In 2016, Barack Obama enlarged the protected area to 1.5 million km². The islands may only be entered for scientific purposes with the special permission of the US Fish & Wildlife Service .

Web links

Commons : Northwestern Hawaiian Islands - Collection of images, videos, and audio files

Northwestern Hawaiian Islands - trivia, photos (English)
NWHI Network - Many current information (English)
Private page with pictures of the NWHI (English)
Side of the State of Hawaii (English)

literature

David Liittschwager and Susan Middleton: The Other Hawaii. National Geographic Germany, G + J Verlag, Oct. 2005, pp. 136–56.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b CIA World Factbook - Midway Atoll (English)
↑ John Rooney, Pal Wessel, Ronald Hoeke, Jonathan Weiss, Jason Baker, Frank Parrish, Charles Fletcher, Joseph Chojnacki, Michael Garcia, Russell Brainard, Peter Vroom: Geology and geomorphology of coral reefs in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. In: BM Riegl, RE Dodge (Ed.): Coral Reefs of the World. Vol 1: Coral Reefs of the USA. Springer 2008, pp. 519–571, doi : 10.1007 / 978-1-4020-6847-8_13 (alternative full text in manuscript form: School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology )

[CIA-1] CIA World Factbook - Midway Atoll (English)

[2] John Rooney, Pal Wessel, Ronald Hoeke, Jonathan Weiss, Jason Baker, Frank Parrish, Charles Fletcher, Joseph Chojnacki, Michael Garcia, Russell Brainard, Peter Vroom: Geology and geomorphology of coral reefs in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. In: BM Riegl, RE Dodge (Ed.): Coral Reefs of the World. Vol 1: Coral Reefs of the USA. Springer 2008, pp. 519–571, doi : 10.1007 / 978-1-4020-6847-8_13 (alternative full text in manuscript form: School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology )