Nukunonu

Template: Infobox Atoll / Maintenance / height Missing

Nukunonu (formerly Duke of Clarence 's Iceland ) is an atoll in the Pacific Ocean, which forms the group of the Tokelau Islands with the other two atolls and Fakaofo Atafu. The Tokelau Islands are a dependent territory of New Zealand in the South Pacific.

Geography

Nuku says on Tokelauisch The country Nonu is the name of a tree with edible berries which is indigenous to the islands. According to the census of 2006, the official population Nukunonus is 426 ( but only 287 were present during the census ), which belong to the vast majority of the Catholic Church.

Nukunonu is the central and largest of the three atolls of Tokelau; it is approximately in the middle between Atafu and Fakaofo. Nukunonu has a total area of over 100 sq km, of which, however, only 98 km ² on the large lagoon of the atoll. The land area of ​​contrast, only 4.7 square kilometers form the 24 located around the central lagoon atoll islands ( motu ).

History

Captain Edward Edwards was in the Pacific with the British ship HMS Pandora on an extensive search for the mutineers of the Bounty. After he had found some of the mutineers on the Society Islands, he went in search of Commodore John Byron's " Duke of York's Island " which he was held on June 6, 1791 (see Atafu ).

Another lagoon island was found on 12 June 1791. When they saw people, a country party was sent out, but saw abandoned the island, as the natives had now left this on the other side with canoes. Edwards named it Duke of Clarence 's Iceland.

Between 1856 and 1979 brought the United States claims to Nukunonu and the others Tokelau Islands. 1979 confirmed the USA the New Zealand possession. It was determined a common maritime boundary between Tokelau and American Samoa.