Blenheim Reef
| Blenheim Reef | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Waters | Indian Ocean | |
| archipelago | Chagos Archipelago | |
| Geographical location | 5 ° 13 ′ S , 72 ° 28 ′ E | |
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| Number of islands | 4 sandbanks | |
| Main island | East Island | |
| length | 11 km | |
| width | 4 km | |
| Land area | 0 ha | |
| Lagoon area | 8.5 km² | |
| total area | 36.8 km² | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
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The Blenheim Reef (old name: Baxio Predassa ) is an uninhabited atoll in the north of the Chagos Archipelago in the central Indian Ocean . Politically, it is part of British Indian Ocean Territory .
geography
The atoll is located around 217 km north of Diego Garcia , 20 km northeast of the Salomon Islands and around 15 km southeast of the largely sunken Speakers Bank . Blenheim Reef is 11 km long in north-south direction, 4 km wide in east-west direction and has a total area of around 37 km². The fringing reef of the atoll is mostly under water, only on the eastern edge there were the four sandy islands East , North , Middle and South Iceland , which are now apparently washed over at high tide .
history
The reef was discovered by the Portuguese in the 1570s , who named it Baxio Predassa . It takes its current name from the barque Blenheim , whose captain James Temple Brown sighted the reef on May 5, 1836. By 1880 the Indian Ocean Fruit Company tried in vain to plant coconut palms on East Island . In 1975 it was incorporated into the newly created British Indian Ocean Territory after independence from Mauritius .
Web links
- Blenheim Reef ( Memento from December 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) in the island encyclopedia oceandots.com (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Background - About the Blenheim. Description and history of the convict transport ship Blenheim . In: Blenheim175. Retrieved May 13, 2017 (English).
- ↑ James Temple Brown: Reef in the Chagos Archipelago, Indian Ocean . Letter dated January 30, 1837 to the editor of Nautical Magazine . In: The Nautical magazine and naval chronicle for 1837. A journal of papers on subjects connected with maritime affairs . Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., London 1837, pp. 172 ( online at HathiTrust .org [accessed May 13, 2017]).