Hao (Tuamotu Islands)

Hao
NASA image by Hao
Waters	Pacific Ocean
archipelago	Tuamotu Archipelago
Geographical location	18 ° 14 ′  S , 140 ° 53 ′  W Coordinates: 18 ° 14 ′  S , 140 ° 53 ′  W
Number of islands	---
Main island	---
Land area	47 km²
Lagoon area	490 km²
Residents	1121 (2007)
Hao lagoon, with the main town Otepa in the background

Hao (also Heao , old name: Bow Island or Island of the Arch ) is an atoll in the center of the Tuamotu Archipelago in the Pacific Ocean and politically belongs to French Polynesia . Hao is also the administrative seat of the municipality of the same name in the Tuamotu Archipelago, which includes nine islands or atolls in addition to the Hao atoll.

geography

Hao is about 920 km east of Tahiti . The flat coral atoll (highest point 3 meters above sea level) is approx. 50 km long and 14 km wide. A mere 47 km² of land made up of a larger island and several small motus enclose a 490 km² lagoon .

history

The atoll was discovered on February 10, 1606 by the Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernández de Quirós . He called it Conversion de San Pablo (German: Conversion of St. Paul ). Hao was taken over for France on March 23, 1768 by Louis Antoine de Bougainville , who named it Île de la Harpe (German: Island of the Harp ) after the shape of the main island .

Between 1963 and 1965, France had an infrastructure built, primarily to use Hao as a supply base for the nuclear weapons tests on the Mururoa Atoll. At that time u. a. an airfield and a hospital.

On June 30, 2000, the French armed forces gave up the Hao Atoll site. The runway and other military facilities have served civilian purposes only since then.

During the operating period of the Space Shuttle was Hao airport an "extended emergency landing" (english: Augmented Emergency Landing Site ) and held ready for unscheduled landings.

See also

• List of Tuamotu Islands

Individual evidence

1. ^ Justine Whitman: Space Shuttle Abort Modes. Aerospaceweb.org, June 25, 2006, accessed October 7, 2011 . 

Web links

Commons : Hao  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Information and pictures (French)