Sarigan

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

Sarigan located 37 kilometers north- northeast of the island Anatahan, 67 kilometers south of the island Guguan and about 150 kilometers north of Saipan, the main island of the Northern Mariana Islands. The triangular shaped, escalating to the southeast island with a length of 2.7 and a width of about 2.5 km has an area of 4.5 km ².

Sarigan is a stratovolcano with a maximum height of 538 meters above the sea. In volcanic crater with a diameter of about 750 meters there is an ash cone and two domes. Both domes were the starting point of lava flows that reached the coast line. The recent eruptions of the volcano have been dated to the lava flows in the Holocene by the sparse vegetation; historical traditions of outbreaks are not known.

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

Previously a Spanish colony, Sarigan was sold as part of the Northern Mariana 1899 to the German Reich and was until 1914 the colony of German New Guinea. The German authorities took advantage of the previously uninhabited island of 1900-1906 as a penal colony. The prisoners, who lived partly with their families on Sarigan were mainly used in the investment of coconut plantations. In 1909 the island was leased to the Pagan Society, which acted mainly with copra. 1912, an estimated 25 acres of coconut plantations exist, but were not managed systematically, as the Pagan society was in financial difficulties. The company had also fowler on Saipan. The feathers of the birds killed were exported to Japan and Europe, where it is processed to Hat feathers.

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

The now uninhabited island was declared in the early 1990s to the nature reserve after human- introduced animal species have been largely eradicated. The criss-crossed by deep ravines and valleys island has in parts a dense, tropical vegetation, consisting among others of coconut palms on.

Around twelve kilometers south of Sarigan is a submarine volcano, the South Sarigan Seamount. It consists of several peaks with a maximum height of about 184 meters below sea level. Presumably it is a frequently active volcano. The South Sarigan Seamount is assigned a short eruption 29 May 2010, in which a presumably consisting mainly of water vapor plume rise estimated twelve kilometers high.

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