Malden Island
Malden (English Malden Iceland ) is an uninhabited coral island in the central Pacific Ocean, which is one of the Line Islands of the island republic of Kiribati.
Geography
Malden is located 200 km northeast of Starbuck Island, about 670 km north-west of Caroline Atoll, and about 447 km south of the equator.
In the island there is a so-called Upscale Atoll, in which the lagoon, although now completely surrounded by coral ring, but not yet dried out. In this case, the lagoon is counted as a lake to land area. Malden has the shape of a triangle with two corners cut off, the sides are each about seven to eight kilometers long. The area of up to eight meters high island is 39.3 km ², of which about 13 km ² on the irregularly shaped lagoon. Since the highest elevations are found along the coast, the ocean from the inland from can often not be seen.
The island is almost completely surrounded by a coral reef; a landing with boats is considered difficult.
History
The atoll was discovered for Europe on July 30, 1825 by British Captain George Anson Byron on HMS Blonde and after Charles Robert Malden, which landed the first on the island, named. The island was indeed found uninhabited, however, were found remains of an early Polynesian settlement. Later investigations came to the conclusion that the island must have been inhabited from about 100 to 200 people a few hundred years earlier.
1828 was first reported large guano deposits and the island after the adoption of the Guano Islands Act in 1856 claimed by the United States. Australian companies, however, had already begun to reduce, which lasted until about 1927. At that time, Malden was permanently inhabited, a small settlement was located at the western end of the island.
Great Britain as a colonial power led in the years 1956 and 1957 by Malden on nuclear weapons tests. 1979 Malden was with other islands in the Line Islands, part of the newly founded state of Kiribati.
Animal and plant life
At the time of discovery by Europeans of dense Pisonia trees ( Pisonia grandis ) was a large part of the island's interior, similar to the Vostok Island, covered, which are up to 20 m high. The Pisonia trees are largely disappeared due to human influences. Today is often the Ilima - shrub ( Sida fallax ) to find. The originally arrived Polynesian rat (Rattus exulans ) was eradicated from entrained domestic cats.
Malden Iceland is an important breeding area for eleven species of seabirds, such as the mask Booby (Sula dactylatra ), the Rotfußtölpels (Sula sula ), the Bindenfregattvogels ( Fregata minor), or Sooty Tern ( Onychoprion fuscatus ).
The island was declared on 29 May 1975 nature reserve Malden Iceland Wildlife Sanctuary and is managed by the Wildlife Conservation Unit of the Ministry of Line and Phoenix Islands Development. However, no permanent staff is on the island, so the reserve is difficult to monitor. So it came in 1979 on the island in a fire, probably caused by (illegal ) visitors.