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- Kiritimati Atoll, coral island in the Northern Line Islands, part of Kiribati, in the west-central Pacific Ocean. It is the largest island of purely coral formation in the world, having a circumference of about 100 miles (160 km). Kiritimati Atoll was sighted on Christmas Eve in 1777 by the English navigator Captain James Cook.
www.britannica.com › place › Kiritimati-AtollKiritimati Atoll | Location, Map, Island, & History | Britannica
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Kiritimati Atoll, coral island in the Northern Line Islands, part of Kiribati, in the west-central Pacific Ocean. It is the largest island of purely coral formation in the world, having a circumference of about 100 miles (160 km). Kiritimati Atoll was sighted on Christmas Eve in 1777 by the English.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Location of Kiritimati. Kiritimati was initially inhabited by Polynesian people. Radiometric dating from sites on the island place the period of human use between 1250 and 1450 AD. Permanent human settlement on Kiritimati likely never occurred.
- 388.39 km² (149.96 sq mi)
- 7,380 (2020 census)
- 13 m (43 ft)
- North Pacific Ocean
Kiritimati has a long and fascinating history. It was first discovered by the Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendana in 1568, who named it “Isla de los Reyes Magos” (Island of the Three Kings). The name was later changed to “Christmas Island” by British explorer Captain James Cook in 1777.
- Becky Alexis-Martin
- Atomic atolls. Teeua Tetua was just three when she was blindfolded with a rough cloth by her mother. They then braced themselves for the Grapple Y explosion.
- Island life disrupted. I went on to speak to a further 14 Kiritimati islanders to learn about their lives and experiences of nuclear weapon testing. All of the islanders that I spoke to who recalled the tests also remember being frightened and uncomfortable.
- Military life. Many of the British servicemen who worked on the operation – and their families – were also left scarred for life, in some way, by their experience on the island.
- Understanding exposure. The general public first became aware of the health effects of ionising radiation after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, which killed 225,000 people.
Kiritimati Island is in the world’s farthest forward time zone, UTC+14, and is one of the first inhabited places on Earth to experience the New Year (see also Caroline Atoll, Kiribati).
Mar 6, 2013 · Islands & Beaches. Reasons to Trek to Kiritimati: Beauty, History, and Really Nice People. Lee Abbamonte, who's on a mission to travel to every country in the world, stops in Kiritimati, an atoll...
Although it lies 2,460 km (1,530 mi) east of the 180th meridian, the Republic of Kiribati realigned the International Date Line in 1995, placing Kiritimati to the west of the dateline. Nuclear tests were conducted on and around Kiritimati by the United Kingdom in the late 1950s, and by the United States in 1962.
