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Kure Atoll

*** Shopping-Tip: Kure Atoll
Image:KureAtoll.jpg thumb|right|330px|Satellite image of Kure Atoll '''Kure Atoll''' or '''Ocean Island''' (Hawaiian language Hawaiian: '''Kānemiloha‘i''') lies some 55 miles beyond Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands at {{coor dm .html">atoll in the world. It consists of a 6-mile wide ring-shaped barrier_reef.html">reef|barrier reef surrounding a shallow lagoon and several sand islets. The only land of significant size is called '''Green Island''' and is habitat for hundreds of thousands of seabirds. Before the mid-1800s, Kure Atoll was visited by several ships and given new names each time. Many crews were stranded on Kure Atoll after being shipwrecked on the surrounding reefs and had to survive on the local seals, turtles, and birds. The shipwrecks remain on the reef today, including the USS Saginaw (1859). Kure is located in the middle of a major current which constantly washes up debris such as fishing nets and large numbers of cigarette lighters on the island. These pose threats to the local animals, especially birds, whose skeletons are frequently found with plastic in the stomach cavity. [http://hawaiireef.noaa.gov/about/kure.html] Formerly a U.S. Coast Guard LORAN station was located on Green Island. A short coral runway still remains on the island. The geological history of Kure follows generally the description provided in the article on Midway Atoll Midway, but Kure lies close to what is called the Darwin Point, the latitude at which reef growth just equals reef destruction by various physical forces. As Kure continues to be slowly carried along to the northwest by the motion of the plate tectonics Pacific Plate, it will move into waters too cool for coral and algae coralline algae growth to keep up with isostasy isostatic subsidence of the mountain. It will then begin to join the other volcanic and reef-topped remnants of the Emperor Seamounts Hawaiian-Emperor Chain to the northwest, that are now all seamounts.

External links

- Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve Category:Pacific Ocean atolls Category:Northwestern Hawaiian Islands ca:Atol Kure de:Kure (Insel)