Farallon de Pajaros

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Farallon de Pajaros
(Uracas)
Farallon de Pajaros
Farallon de Pajaros
Waters Pacific Ocean
Archipelago Mariana Islands
Geographical location 20 ° 32 '42 "  N , 144 ° 53' 37"  E Coordinates: 20 ° 32 '42 "  N , 144 ° 53' 37"  E
Location of Farallon de Pajaros (Uracas)
length 1.8 km
width 1.6 km
surface 2.3 km²
Highest elevation Farallon de Pajaros
360  m
Residents uninhabited

Farallon de Pajaros (from the Spanish Farallón de los pájaros , in German "cliff of birds", also called Uracas , Guy or Fanny ) is a small, uninhabited volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean . Geographically it belongs to the Mariana Islands and politically to the US outer area of ​​the Northern Mariana Islands .

Farallon de Pajaros is the northernmost island of the Mariana Islands. It is located 65 kilometers northwest of the Maug Islands and 591 kilometers north of Saipan , the main island of the Northern Mariana Islands. It is 541 kilometers to the next group of islands, Kazan-rettō , which belongs to Japan . The nearly round island has a length of 1.8 kilometers, a width of 1.6 kilometers and an area of ​​2.3 km². Farallon de Pajaros is the summit of an active stratovolcano with a height of 360 meters above sea level. At its base at over 2000 meters below sea level, the volcano has a diameter of 15 to 20 kilometers. 15 volcanic eruptions were recorded between 1864 and 1953 .

From 1899 to 1914 Farallon de Pajaros was part of the German New Guinea colony . In 1903 the island was leased to a Japanese company. Birds were hunted and their feathers were exported to Paris via Japan, where they were made into hat feathers .

Farallon de Pajaros was probably never permanently inhabited. In 1985 it was placed under conservation as the Uracas Island Preserve . In the constitution of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the status of the island is set out as an uninhabited area, which is intended to protect and preserve natural resources. Since 2009, the island has been part of the United States' Maraianas Trench Marine National Monument .

There are two submarine volcanoes in the vicinity of Farallon de Pajaros : The Makhahnas Seamount is around 10 kilometers southwest, reaches a height of 640 meters below sea level and last erupted in 1967. The Ahyi Seamount is about 18 kilometers southeast and reaches a height of 137 meters below sea level. It is assigned an outbreak in 2001 and a possible outbreak in 1979.

literature

  • Russell E. Brainard et al .: Coral reef ecosystem monitoring report of the Mariana Archipelago: 2003-2007. (= PIFSC Special Publication , SP-12-01) NOAA Fisheries, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center 2012 ( chapter Farallon de Pajaros (English, PDF, 10.4 MB)).
  • Erich Kaiser: Contributions to the petrography and geology of the German South Sea Islands. In: Yearbook of the Royal Prussian State Geological Institute and Mining Academy in Berlin for 1903. Volume XXIV, Berlin 1907, pp. 114–118. pdf

Web links

Commons : Farallon de Pajaros  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry Uracas in the German Colonial Lexicon , Volume III, p. 581.
  2. ↑ Brainard, Coral reef ecosystem monitoring report , p. 1 (English, PDF, 10.4 MB).
  3. ↑ Gerd Hardach: King Copra. The Mariana Islands under German rule 1899–1914. Steiner, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-515-05762-5 , pp. 133f.
  4. ↑ Brainard, Coral reef ecosystem monitoring report , p. 4 (English, PDF, 10.4 MB).
  5. ↑ Farallon de Pajaros in the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution (English). Retrieved December 10, 2014
  6. ↑ Ahyi in the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution (English). Retrieved December 10, 2014