Raroia

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Raroia
NASA image of Raroia
NASA image by Raroia
Waters Pacific Ocean
archipelago Tuamotu Archipelago
Geographical location 16 ° 5 ′  S , 142 ° 25 ′  W Coordinates: 16 ° 5 ′  S , 142 ° 25 ′  W
Raroia (French Polynesia)
Raroia
Number of islands 280
Main island Ngnarumaova (Garumaoa)
length 44 km
width 14.4 km
Land area 19.5 km²
Lagoon area 385 km²
Residents 303 (2007)
Map from 1953
Map from 1953
Template: Infobox Atoll / Maintenance / HoeheFehlt

Raroia (old names: La Fugitiva or Barcley de Tolley ) is an atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago and thus belongs to French Polynesia . It is 6 km southwest of Takume and about 55 km northeast of Nihiru .

Fishermen in Garumaoa

geography

Its extension is 44 km from east to west and 14 km from south to north. The atoll has a total of 280 motus (reef islands), of which around 60 (including the larger and higher ones) are on the leeward side. The village of Garumaoa is on the northwest side of the lagoon, just south of the only entrance, Passe Garue . It is a " Commune associée " (sub-municipality) of the municipality of Makemo and has 303 inhabitants.

The entrance to the lagoon in the northwest is divided into three channels, which are separated from each other by shallows. The northern of these canals is up to 6.4 m deep and can be navigated by ships up to 100 m in length. On the east side of the atoll there is bushland, in the north and west the atoll is overgrown with trees, especially near a driveway and up to 5 km south of it. Inside, the lagoon is up to 27 m deep. Pearl farming is carried out here on the coral reefs .

history

The island of Raroia was discovered in 1606 by Pedro Fernández de Quirós , who gave it the name "La Fugitiva". Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen visited the island in 1820 and named it "Barclay de Tolley" after the Russian general Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly .

The atoll became known as the end point of the 1947 “ Kon-Tiki ” expedition. The expedition participant Bengt Danielsson wrote his dissertation with the title "Living and Working on Raroia" about this island.

literature

  • Work and life on Raroia. An Acculturation Study from the Tuamotu Group French Oceania. by B. Danielsson, published around 1955.
  • Raroia - Happy Island of the South Seas by Danielsson, Bengt, Rand McNally 1953

source

Pub. 126 Sailing directions (Enroute), Pacific Islands. National Image and Mapping Agency, Bethesda, Maryland

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. PDF at www.sil.si.edu