Minamidaitōjima

Minami- Daitō (Japanese南大 东 岛, -jima/-shima, literally " South Daitō Island ", formerly South Borodino Island ) is the largest and most populous island of the Japanese Daitō Islands in the Philippine Sea.

Geography

The island is located 9 km south of Kita- Daitō, the second largest island of the archipelago, as well as about 360 kilometers east of Naha on Okinawa, the seat of the prefecture. Like all Daitō Islands is also Minami- Daitō an upscale atoll with a steep cliff coast of limestone - the former fringing reef of the atoll - as well as a deeper level in the interior of the island, which today are some small lakes. Minami- Daitō has a length of 6.54 km, a circumference of 21.2 km and has an area of ​​30.57 km ². The island is surrounded by a coral reef on the coast reaches a height of up to 75 meters above the sea.

Administratively, the island is part of Okinawa Prefecture, where it forms the community Minamidaito (南大 东村). Minami- Daitō has 1440 inhabitants (as of February 1, 2014), which mainly live in a settlement in the southwest of the island's interior. To the east of the airport of Minami- Daitō is (南大 东 空港, Minamidaito Kuko, IATA Code: MQD, ICAO code: ROMD ) with a 1500 m long runway.

  • Views

A pond in the deeper interior of the island

Persons and goods must be transported by crane to the island

History

It is possible that originally uninhabited islands Minami- and Kita- Daitō were discovered already at July 28, 1587 by the Spaniard Pedro de Unamuno and baptized Islas sin Probecho. Despite the wrong coordinates a sighting of the British Captain John Meares of 5 April 1788 who baptized the islands Grampus Isles, as secured applies. On 2 July 1820, the two close together islands was rediscovered by the Russian lieutenant Sachar Ponafidin, named after his ship Borodino and determines their position correctly. 1899 started the Japanese occupation of the island with a population of Hachijo -jima; in the wake of the breakdown of guano and the reclamation began with the cultivation mainly of sugar cane.

Naha, Okinawa Coral island International Civil Aviation Organization Cabinet Secretariat (Japan)
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