Sarigan

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Sarigan
Sarigan by sea
Sarigan by sea
Waters Pacific Ocean
Archipelago Mariana Islands
Geographical location 16 ° 42 ′  N , 145 ° 47 ′  E Coordinates: 16 ° 42 ′  N , 145 ° 47 ′  E
Location of Sarigan
length 2.7dep1
width 2.5dep1
surface 4.5 km²
Highest elevation 538  m
Residents uninhabited
main place Sarigan Village
(abandoned)

Sarigan is a small volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean . It belongs geographically to the arch of the islands of the Mariana Islands and politically to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands .

Sarigan is 37 kilometers north-northeast of the island of Anatahan , 67 kilometers south of the island of Guguan and about 150 kilometers north of Saipan , the main island of the Northern Mariana Islands. The triangular shaped island, which tapers to the southeast, is 2.7 kilometers long and 2.5 kilometers wide and covers an area of ​​4.5 km².

Sarigan is a stratovolcano with a maximum height of 538 meters above sea level. In the volcanic crater with a diameter of about 750 meters there is an ash cone and two dunnage . Both reservoirs were the starting point of lava flows that reached the coastline. The most recent eruptions of the volcano are dated to the Holocene from the sparse vegetation on the lava flows ; historical records of eruptions are not known.

Archaeological finds point to an earlier settlement by the Chamorros . From a European perspective, the island was discovered in 1669 by the Spanish missionary Diego Luis de Sanvitores . In 1695 all residents were deported first to Saipan and then to Guam in 1698 .

Previously a Spanish colony , Sarigan was sold to the German Empire as part of the Northern Mariana Islands in 1899 and belonged to the German New Guinea colony until 1914 . The German authorities used the previously uninhabited island as a penal colony between 1900 and 1906 . The prisoners, some of whom lived with their families on Sarigan, were mainly used to plant coconut trees . From 1909 the island was leased to the Pagan Society , which mainly traded in copra . In 1912 there were an estimated 25 hectares of coconut plantations, but these were no longer systematically managed because the Pagan Society had got into economic difficulties. The company also employed bird catchers on Saipan. The feathers of the killed birds were exported to Europe via Japan and made into hat feathers there .

Between 1919 and 1944, Saipan was administered by Japan as part of the South Seas Mandate . Between 10 and 20 families lived on the island in the 1930s. After the Second World War, the residents were removed from the island. From 1947 the island was part of the United States Pacific Islands Trust Territory ; since 1978 to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands .

The now uninhabited island was declared a nature reserve in the early 1990s after animal species that were introduced by humans were largely exterminated. The island, which is criss-crossed by deep gorges and valleys, has dense, tropical vegetation in parts, consisting of coconut palms, among other things.

About twelve kilometers south of Sarigan is a submarine volcano , the South Sarigan Seamount . It consists of several peaks with a maximum height of approximately 184 meters below sea level. Presumably it is an often active volcano. A brief eruption on May 29, 2010 is assigned to the South Sarigan Seamount , during which an eruption cloud presumably consisting mainly of water vapor rose an estimated twelve kilometers high.

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 Sarigan (English, PDF, 11.0 MB)).

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. Brainard, Coral reef ecosystem monitoring report , p. 1 (English, PDF, 11.0 MB).
  2. Dirk HR Speenemann: Combining Curiosity with Political Skill: The Antiquarian Interests and Cultural Politics of Georg Fritz. In: Micronesian journal of the humanities and social sciences , 2006 (5), pp. 495–504, here p. 498 (English, PDF, 7.6 MB).
  3. Gerd Hardach: King Copra. The Mariana Islands under German rule 1899–1914. Steiner, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-515-05762-5 , pp. 103, 106, 137, 172.
  4. Dirk HR Speenemann: Exploitation of bird plumages in the German Mariana Islands. In: Micronesica 1999 (31) pp. 309-318, here p. 313 (English, PDF, 48 kB).
  5. Brainard, Coral reef ecosystem monitoring report , p. 2 (English, PDF, 11.0 MB).
  6. ^ South Sarigan Seamount in the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution. (Accessed December 26, 2012).
  7. Sudden, short-lived, explosive eruption from submarine vent. Monthly report 05/2010 in the Global Volcanism Program (accessed December 26, 2012).