Orona

This article describes the archipelago, for the Spanish elevator and escalator manufacturer see Orona (company)

Orona
Satellite image of the Orona Atoll
Waters	Pacific Ocean
archipelago	Phoenix Islands
Geographical location	4 ° 30 ′  S , 172 ° 10 ′  W Coordinates: 4 ° 30 ′  S , 172 ° 10 ′  W
Land area	3.9 km²
Lagoon area	25 km²
Residents	uninhabited
Hull Island in the lower left corner of the map

Orona (formerly Hull Island ) is the second largest atoll in the Kiribati Phoenix Islands after Canton . It is located in the Pacific Ocean , about 460 km south of the equator . The large, centrally located and up to 10 m deep lagoon is surrounded by numerous sand islands ( motus ), but is also connected to the open sea by many narrow channels.

When and by whom the atoll was first sighted is not known; however, it is undoubtedly a whaling discovery - British or American - from the early 1820s. It is clear that Orona was often confused with the neighboring Sydney Island, today's Manra during this period . In any case, the island owes its former name Hull Island to the name given by Charles Wilkes , the head of a US South Sea expedition. Wilkes named the atoll when he arrived there on August 26, 1840 after the American naval officer and captain Isaac Hull (1773-1843); see also USS Constitution .

The atoll, including the lagoon, about 38 km² in size, was only inhabited between 1938 and 1963. The village on the west side of Orona was called Arariki . At that time, Hull Island was the destination of a resettlement program initiated by the British colonialists (the so-called " Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme ") to cope with the overpopulation on the northwestern Gilbert Islands . The main reason why the project failed was that the soil and the groundwater obtained from it were too salty to be used for agriculture and animal husbandry. After the failure of the project, however, the settlers gradually left the three affected islands of Orona (Hull Island), Nikumaroro (Gardner Island) and Manra (Sydney Island).

• gallery
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  Orona seen from the sea

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  The inner lagoon

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  Historical post office on Orona

The atoll is now uninhabited, but it is an important breeding ground for numerous sea ​​birds and sea ​​turtles .

literature

• Henry Evans Maude : "The Colonization of the Phoenix Islands". 1968. Detailed report of the responsible land commissioner of the Gilbert Islands (accessed on January 14, 2014, English)

Web links

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

• Maps and other historical information (English)
• Further satellite images of the Orona Atoll ( Memento from December 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive )