Maug Islands

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Maug Islands
Aerial view of the islands from the south
Aerial view of the islands from the south
Waters Pacific Ocean
archipelago Mariana Islands
Geographical location 20 ° 1 ′  N , 145 ° 13 ′  E Coordinates: 20 ° 1 ′  N , 145 ° 13 ′  E
Map of Maug Islands
Number of islands 3
Main island East Island
Total land area 2.13 km²
Residents uninhabited
Caldera bathymetry (3D view from NOAA)
Caldera bathymetry (3D view from NOAA )
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The Maug Islands (also Maduch , Tunas , San Lorenzo or Las Monjas ) are a small, uninhabited group of islands in the Pacific Ocean . Geographically, they belong to the Mariana Archipelago and politically to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands .

geography

The Maug Islands are about 70 kilometers south of the Farallon de Pajaros and about 37 kilometers north of the island of Asuncion . The islands are a good 650 kilometers away from Saipan , the main island of the Northern Mariana Islands. The archipelago consists of three islands that used to be part of a volcano and now surround a caldera with a diameter of approximately 2.2 kilometers. The bottom of the caldera is partially over 225 meters below sea level. In the middle of the caldera is a mountain, the summit of which is 22 meters below sea level. The islands have a combined area of ​​2.13 km² and on North Island they reach a height of up to 227 meters above sea level. No volcanic eruptions have been recorded since it was discovered by Europeans .

The individual islands are:

island Length (km) Width (km) Area (km²) Height (m)
North Island 1.5 0.5 0.47 227
East Island 2.25 0.5 0.95 215
West Iceland 2.0 0.75 0.71 178
Maug Islands 3.1 3.0 2.13 227

About 10 kilometers northwest of the Maug Islands is the Supply Reef , a submarine volcano whose summit is 8 meters below sea level. The Maug Islands and the Supply Reef together form a volcanic massif, which is connected by a saddle about 1,800 meters below sea level.

history

From a European perspective, the Maug Islands were discovered by Gómez de Espinosa in 1522. Espinosa had taken part in the circumnavigation of the world under Ferdinand Magellan and, after Magellan's death, tried unsuccessfully to take the ship Trinidad through the Pacific to Mexico. At the time of discovery, 20 Chamorros lived on the largest of the Maug Islands, which they called Mao or Pamo . Espinosa released a Chamorro on the island that he had previously kidnapped on Agrigan Island . Three Trinidad crew members deserted. Two of them were killed by Chamorros; the third, Gonzalo Alvarez de Vigo, later reached Guam , where he met the Spanish navigator García Jofre de Loaísa in September 1526 . In 1669 the Spanish missionary Diego Luis de Sanvitores visited the Maug Islands. In 1695 all residents were deported first to Saipan and then to Guam in 1698 . Since then, the Maug Islands have been uninhabited.

From 1899 to 1918 the islands, like all northern Marianas, were part of the German colony of German New Guinea after being sold by Spain to the German Empire . 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 .

Between 1919 and 1944, the Maug Islands were administered by Japan as part of the South Seas Mandate . At that time there was a weather station and a fish processing plant on the islands . During the Second World War , the crew of the German auxiliary cruiser Orion used the caldera in January and February 1941 to overtake their ship and to meet with several supply ships.

nature

The islands are covered with grass, including savanna grass; screw trees ( pandanus ) and coconut palms also grow on East Island near the former settlement. 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 January 2009 they are part of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument of the USA .

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 Maug (English, PDF, 27.1 MB)).

Web links

Commons : Maug Islands  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry Maug in the German Colonial Lexicon , Volume II, p. 528 (accessed on December 28, 2012).
  2. ↑ Maug at the Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center (PIBHMC) of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (English, accessed December 28, 2012).
  3. ↑ Supply Reef in the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution (accessed December 28, 2012).
  4. ^ Robert F. Rogers: Destiny's landfall. A history of Guam. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu 1995, ISBN 0-8248-1678-1 , p. 10.
  5. ↑ Gerd Hardach: King Copra. The Mariana Islands under German rule 1899–1914. Steiner, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-515-05762-5 , pp. 133f.
  6. ↑ Brainard, Coral reef ecosystem monitoring report , p. 2 (English, PDF, 27.1 MB).
  7. ↑ Jürgen Rohwer : Entry January 12 to February 5, 1941 in Chronicle of the Naval War 1939–1945. (Accessed January 8, 2013).
  8. ↑ Brainard, Coral reef ecosystem monitoring report , p. 4 (English, PDF, 27.1 MB).