Kure Atoll
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Kure Atoll or Ocean Island (Hawaiian: Kānemiloha‘i) lies some 55 miles beyond Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands at Template:Coor dm. The International Date Line lies approximately 100 miles to the west. Kure is the northern-most coral atoll in the world. It consists of a ring-shaped 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.
Formerly a U.S. Coast Guard Loran station was located on Green Island.
The geological history of Kure follows generally the description provided in the article on 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 Pacific Plate, it will move into waters too cool for coral and coralline algae growth to keep up with isostatic subsidence of the mountain. It will then begin to join the other volcanic and reef-topped remnants of the Hawaiian-Emperor Chain to the northwest, that are now all seamounts.
External links
- University of Hawai'i (http://www.hawaiianatolls.org/about/kure.html)
- NOAA maps and remote sensing photos (http://ccmaserver.nos.noaa.gov/rsd/products/kure.html#atollstart)