Atiu

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Atiu
Atiu satellite image
Atiu satellite image
Waters Pacific Ocean
Archipelago Cook Islands
Geographical location 19 ° 59 ′ 0 ″  S , 158 ° 7 ′ 0 ″  W Coordinates: 19 ° 59 ′ 0 ″  S , 158 ° 7 ′ 0 ″  W
Atiu (Cook Islands)
Atiu
length 7.2 km
width 4.8 km
surface 26.9 km²
Highest elevation 70  m
Residents 570 (2006)
21 inhabitants / km²
main place Mapumai
Map of Atiu
Map of Atiu

Atiu (also called Enuamanu ) is a 27 km² island belonging to the Polynesian Cook Islands . It belongs to the southern archipelago of the Cook Islands and is 187 km northeast of the main island of Rarotonga . Almost 570 inhabitants (2006 census) live in five villages on Atiu. The population is falling rapidly due to emigration to New Zealand and Australia; at the 2001 census, Atiu still had a population of 623.

Atiu is about 11 million years old and of volcanic origin. In contrast to most other volcanic islands in the South Pacific, it still rises about 0.2 mm per year from the sea floor. It emerged from a hot spot in the earth's crust , from which an undersea volcano emerged, which, however, extinguished before it could reach the sea surface. As a result of the slow tectonic movement of the sea floor, it was lifted over a period of 8 million years together with the extinct volcano (today's Atiu), so that the coral reef below the surface finally emerged from the water. The island consists almost entirely of coral rock with only a few pockets of fertile soil on which agriculture is possible.

See also

Web links

Commons : Atiu  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Total Population and Land Area by Iceland . (PDF 9 kB) Government Cook Islands , 2006, archived from the original on July 22, 2007 ; accessed on June 22, 2018 (English, original website no longer available).