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58-517: Ducie Island ( / ˈ d uː s i / ; Pitkern: Ducie Ailen ) is an uninhabited atoll in the Pitcairn Islands group, which also includes Pitcairn , Henderson and Oeno islands. Ducie lies east of Pitcairn Island, and east of Henderson Island , and has a total area of 1.5 square miles (3.9 km), which includes the lagoon . It is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long, measured northeast to southwest, and about 1 mile (1.6 km) wide. The island

116-503: A reef knoll refers to the elevated remains of an ancient atoll within a limestone region, appearing as a hill. The second largest atoll by dry land area is Aldabra , with 155 km (60 sq mi). Huvadhu Atoll , situated in the southern region of the Maldives, holds the distinction of being the largest atoll based on the sheer number of islands it comprises, with a total of 255 individual islands. In 1842, Charles Darwin explained

174-472: A 1933 State Department report, Daggett never provided the additional information and the claim was never accepted by the United States. On 5 June 1881, the mail ship Acadia ran aground on the island while returning from San Francisco, Peru after unloading its cargo. On the way to Queenstown or Falmouth for new orders, Master Stephen George calculated a route passing 15 to 20 miles (24 to 32 km) to

232-402: A channel 100 yards (91 m) wide located in the southwest, between Pandora and Westward Islets. It has a maximum depth of 52 feet (16 m) and its bottom consists of sand and coral. Whirlpools in the lagoon are common, caused by caves that drain the water from the lagoon into the ocean. Pandora is known as being one of the three coastline vertices for Point Nemo , the set of coordinates in

290-809: A ring-shaped ribbon reef enclosing a lagoon". There are approximately 440 atolls in the world. Most of the world's atolls are in the Pacific Ocean (with concentrations in the Caroline Islands , the Coral Sea Islands , the Marshall Islands , the Tuamotu Islands , Kiribati , Tokelau , and Tuvalu ) and the Indian Ocean (the Chagos Archipelago , Lakshadweep , the atolls of the Maldives , and

348-442: A very different origin of formation. In most cases, the land area of an atoll is very small in comparison to the total area. Atoll islands are low lying, with their elevations less than 5 metres (16 ft). Measured by total area, Lifou (1,146 km , 442 sq mi) is the largest raised coral atoll of the world, followed by Rennell Island (660 km , 250 sq mi). More sources, however, list Kiritimati as

406-512: A volcanic island in the tropical sea will grow upward as the island subsides (sinks), becoming an "almost atoll", or barrier reef island, as typified by an island such as Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, and Bora Bora and others in the Society Islands. The fringing reef becomes a barrier reef for the reason that the outer part of the reef maintains itself near sea level through biotic growth, while

464-692: Is 15 feet (4.6 m). Ducie is located 620 miles (1,000 km) west of the edge of the Easter Plate . It was formed approximately 8 million years ago, after Oeno Island was formed by a hotspot that later caused a magma leak generated in the Oeno lineation . The leak spread over fracture zone FZ2, which was formed by the third movement of the Pacific Plate . The atoll is part of the Oeno-Henderson-Ducie- Crough seamount , speculated to be part of

522-533: Is composed of four islets: Acadia, Pandora, Westward and Edwards. Despite its sparse vegetation, the atoll is known as the breeding ground of a number of bird species. More than 90% of the world population of Murphy's petrel nests on Ducie, while pairs of red-tailed tropicbirds and fairy terns make around 1% of the world population for each species. Ducie was first discovered in 1606 by Pedro Fernandes de Queiros , who named it Luna Puesta , and rediscovered by Edward Edwards , captain of HMS  Pandora , who

580-572: Is dangerous to humans, while the whitetips are seldom aggressive unless provoked. Five species are found exclusively around the Pitcairn Islands: Sargocentron megalops (a species of squirrelfish ), the spiny butterflyfish , the Henderson triplefin (a species of threefin blenny ), an unnamed species of Alticus (a genus of combtooth blenny ), and an unnamed species of Ammodytes (a genus of sand lance ). Lizards that inhabit

638-463: Is dead, presumed to have been killed by influxes of cold water. Though no terrestrial birds are found on the atoll, Ducie Island is known for the seabirds that breed there. Birds that have been recorded nesting on the atoll include the red-billed tropicbird , red-tailed tropicbird , white tern , great frigatebird , masked booby , and red-footed booby . Wintering bristle-thighed curlews have been recorded as well. A number of tern species, including

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696-459: Is not. Pemphis acidula has also been recorded on Ducie; specimens were found during an expedition in 1991. During the expedition of Hugh Cuming in 1827 and the 1922 Whitney South Sea Expedition , Lepturus grass was found on Acadia Islet. However, it disappeared when storm waves deforested the island some time before the Smithsonian expedition of 1975. Thus H. foertherianum now dominates

754-573: Is rarely visited, receiving one to two visits a year from cruise ships. The island was discovered by a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese sailor Pedro Fernandes de Queirós on 26 January 1606, during an expedition that began in Callao , Peru. Supported by Pope Clement VIII and Philip III of Spain , Queirós was given the command of the San Pedro , San Pablo and Zabra . The fleet was nicknamed Los Tres Reyes Magos (" The Three Wise Men "). The objective of

812-753: Is unclear which one was Henderson island and which one was Pitcairn. The confusion was later compounded when a chart produced by Admiral José de Espinosa marked Ducie as La Encarnación , rather than as Luna Puesta . The island was rediscovered and named Ducie Island on 16 March 1791 by Captain Edward Edwards , of HMS  Pandora , who had been despatched from Britain in 1790 to arrest the Bounty mutineers . Edwards named it in honour of Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie , under whom he had served earlier in his career. HMS Pandora turned northwards from Ducie and, because of this change of course, Edwards did not sight

870-820: The Outer Islands of Seychelles ). In addition, Indonesia also has several atolls spread across the archipelago, such as in the Thousand Islands , Taka Bonerate Islands , and atolls in the Raja Ampat Islands . The Atlantic Ocean has no large groups of atolls, other than eight atolls east of Nicaragua that belong to the Colombian department of San Andres and Providencia in the Caribbean. Reef-building corals will thrive only in warm tropical and subtropical waters of oceans and seas, and therefore atolls are found only in

928-590: The Royal Society of London carried out drilling on Funafuti atoll in Tuvalu for the purpose of investigating the formation of coral reefs . They wanted to determine whether traces of shallow water organisms could be found at depth in the coral of Pacific atolls. This investigation followed the work on the structure and distribution of coral reefs conducted by Charles Darwin in the Pacific. The first expedition in 1896

986-413: The sooty tern , blue noddy , brown noddy , lesser noddy , and white tern have been recorded, as have several members of the family Procellariidae: Kermadec petrel , Trindade petrel , Murphy's petrel , and Christmas shearwater . The island is particularly important for Murphy's petrel, as more than 90% of its world population breeds on Ducie. Around 3,000 pairs of Christmas shearwaters, about 5% of

1044-805: The 1893 Pacific Order in Council , Pitcairn Island was governed by the High Commissioner of the British Western Pacific Territories in Fiji. On 19 December 1902, commissioned by R. T. Simmons, the British Consul in Tahiti , Captain G. F. Jones and a group of Pitcairners visited the nearby islands and annexed them to the United Kingdom. In 1903 Ducie was annexed by the same procedure and placed under

1102-508: The Equator is Aranuka of Kiribati. Its southern tip is just 13 km (8 mi) north of the Equator. Bermuda is sometimes claimed as the "northernmost atoll" at a latitude of 32°18′ N. At this latitude, coral reefs would not develop without the warming waters of the Gulf Stream . However, Bermuda is termed a pseudo-atoll because its general form, while resembling that of an atoll, has

1160-507: The Guano Islands Act, neither the United States nor the United Kingdom recognised the sovereignty claimed by each other. Neither of the two considered that the mere discovery of an island was sufficient to claim sovereignty over it, and often a formal act of possession was considered the proper procedure to claim rights over a territory. Ultimately, the United States did not assert its sovereignty over most of its claimed territories. Under

1218-640: The Pacific Order in Council ceased to have effect and the British Governor of Fiji was appointed Governor of the Pitcairn Islands , which became a separate British colony. A new constitution for the Pitcairn Islands was enacted on 10 February 2010, establishing that Ducie and the rest of the islands are ruled by a governor designated by the British monarch. The governor has a duty to enforce the provisions of

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1276-465: The South Pacific Ocean that represents the furthest point from any land in three directions. The vegetation in the atoll is sparse, because of the lack of fresh water. Only two species of vascular plant are currently known to grow there – one of the smallest such floras on any island. Acadia, Pandora and Edwards Islets are forested with Heliotropium foertherianum , but Westward Islet

1334-515: The antecedent karst model as they found that the morphology of modern atolls are independent of any influence of an underlying submerged and buried island and are not rooted to an initial fringing reef/barrier reef attached to a slowly subsiding volcanic edifice. In fact, the Neogene reefs underlying the studied modern atolls overlie and completely bury the subsided island are all non-atoll, flat-topped reefs. In fact, they found that atolls did not form doing

1392-554: The authority of the Western Pacific High Commissioner. R. T. Simmons stated in a dispatch to the Foreign Office that James Russell McCoy had assured him that the islands had always been considered as dependencies of Pitcairn, and that he and other Pitcairners had frequently visited them in the past. This claim is contested by Donald McLoughlin on grounds of the distance between Pitcairn Island and Ducie Island and

1450-507: The constitution. Ducie lies 290 miles (470 km) east of Pitcairn Island and is claimed by some to be the southernmost atoll in the world at 24°41' S latitude. However, Elizabeth Reef in the Tasman Sea is at 29°57 S latitude, so the assertion on behalf of Ducie Island is doubtful. Ducie Island's land area is 170 acres (69 ha) and its maximum elevation, occurring on the Westward islet,

1508-417: The creation of coral atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean based upon observations made during a five-year voyage aboard HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836. Darwin's explanation suggests that several tropical island types: from high volcanic island, through barrier reef island, to atoll, represented a sequence of gradual subsidence of what started as an oceanic volcano. He reasoned that a fringing coral reef surrounding

1566-436: The direct result of the interaction between subsidence and preferential karst dissolution that occurred in the interior of flat topped coral reefs during exposure during glacial lowstands of sea level. The elevated rims along an island created by this preferential karst dissolution become the sites of coral growth and islands of atolls when flooded during interglacial highstands. The research of A. W. Droxler and others supports

1624-561: The dolomitization of calcite and aragonite within them. They are the evaporative, seepage-reflux, mixing-zone, burial, and seawater models. Although the origin of replacement dolomites remains problematic and controversial, it is generally accepted that seawater was the source of magnesium for dolomitization and the fluid in which calcite was dolomitized to form the dolomites found within atolls. Various processes have been invoked to drive large amounts of seawater through an atoll in order for dolomitization to occur. In 1896, 1897 and 1898,

1682-435: The east of Ducie. George left the first mate in command at 6 am. Half an hour later, the first mate saw a white line, which he disregarded on the assumption that it was phosphorescence in the water. Later, realising that it was land, he manoeuvred to avoid running aground, but failed. The look-out excused himself by saying that he thought that the white land was a cloud. The crew made several unsuccessful attempts to re-float

1740-579: The expedition was to take soldiers, friars and provisions to establish a colony in the Santa Cruz Islands . Ducie Island was the first of eighteen discoveries on the trip. Queirós named the island Luna Puesta (roughly, "moon that has set"). On the same day, he also sighted two more islands, one that he named San Juan Bautista ("St John the Baptist"), and the other La Encarnación ("the Incarnation"). It

1798-446: The flat surface of coral reef, it is exposed to the atmosphere as a flat topped island which is dissolved by rainfall to form limestone karst . Because of hydrologic properties of this karst, the rate of dissolution of the exposed coral is lowest along its rim and the rate of dissolution increases inward to its maximum at the center of the island. As a result, a saucer shaped island with a raised rim forms. When relative sea level submerges

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1856-472: The inner part of the reef falls behind, becoming a lagoon because conditions are less favorable for the coral and calcareous algae responsible for most reef growth. In time, subsidence carries the old volcano below the ocean surface and the barrier reef remains. At this point, the island has become an atoll. As formulated by J. E. Hoffmeister, F. S. McNeil, E. G. Prudy, and others, the antecedent karst model argues that atolls are Pleistocene features that are

1914-535: The island again, the rim provides a rocky core on which coral grow again to form the islands of an atoll and the flooded bottom of the saucer forms the lagoon within them. The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu ( އަތޮޅު , pronounced [ˈat̪oɭu] ). Dhivehi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Maldives . The word's first recorded English use was in 1625 as atollon . Charles Darwin coined

1972-460: The island include the white-bellied skink ( Emoia cyanura ), photographed by E. H. Quayle during an expedition in 1922, and a lizard reported in the journal of an expedition in 1935 by James Chapin. The species of the latter was uncertain, but it was thought to be a gecko , possibly either an oceanic gecko ( Gehyra oceanica ), or a mourning gecko ( Lepidodactylus lugubris ). The 1991–92 Pitcairn Islands Scientific Expedition found specimens of both

2030-577: The island or in the nearby waters. Although Captain Edward Edwards discovered the atoll in 1791, Ducie was not considered a British possession. In 1867 Ducie was claimed by the United States under the Guano Islands Act , which established that an uninhabited territory with guano deposits could be claimed as a US possession, so long as it was unclaimed by any other country. Despite claims on several other territories, based on various documents such as

2088-403: The island or rising oceans). An alternative model for the origin of atolls is called the antecedent karst model. In the antecedent karst model, the first step in the formation of an atoll is the development of a flat top, mound-like coral reef during the subsidence of an oceanic island of either volcanic or nonvolcanic origin below sea level. Then, when relative sea level drops below the level of

2146-531: The lack of a suitable boat to navigate the distance between the two, casting doubt on whether they had ever visited Ducie. On 4 August 1937, Captain J. W. Rivers-Carnac, commander of HMS Leander , reaffirmed British sovereignty over Ducie by hoisting the Union Flag and placing boards proclaiming the island to be the property of King George VI . Ducie was one of several islands thought valuable for potential seaplane bases, though they did not materialise. In 1953,

2204-529: The lagoon there are around 138 fish species, which also inhabit southeastern Oceania, the Western Pacific, and the Indian Ocean. The lagoon is noted for its poisonous fish and dangerous sharks. The yellow-edged lyretail , the blacktip grouper , and the greasy grouper are known to cause ciguatera poisoning . The lagoon is also inhabited by Galápagos sharks and the whitetip reef shark . The Galápagos shark

2262-412: The largest atoll in the world in terms of land area. It is also a raised coral atoll (321 km , 124 sq mi land area; according to other sources even 575 km , 222 sq mi), 160 km (62 sq mi) main lagoon, 168 km (65 sq mi) other lagoons (according to other sources 319 km , 123 sq mi total lagoon size). The geological formation known as

2320-431: The master or an unknown current that carried the ship to the island. The court declared the master not guilty of any wrongdoing. A stone marker with a memorial inscription is located at the landing point on Acadia Islet. It was unveiled to commemorate the recovery of the anchor in 1990. The wreck lies offshore from the memorial stone in about 10 metres of water. In 1969, the atoll was proposed as an "Island for Science", and

2378-585: The mourning gecko and the white-bellied skink. The only mammal known to inhabit Ducie is the Polynesian rat ; In 1997, there was a successful project to eradicate these by Brian Bell (WMIL) and Graham Wragg (S/V Te Manu), to aid the conservation of bird species threatened by the rat population. Green sea turtles feed on Ducie, but have not been seen to breed there. 24°41′S 124°47′W  /  24.683°S 124.783°W  / -24.683; -124.783 Atoll Two different, well-cited models,

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2436-482: The ocean. As the volcanic island subsides, the coral fringing reef becomes a barrier reef that is detached from the island. Eventually, reef and the small coral islets on top of it are all that is left of the original island, and a lagoon has taken the place of the former volcano. The lagoon is not the former volcanic crater. For the atoll to persist, the coral reef must be maintained at the sea surface, with coral growth matching any relative change in sea level (sinking of

2494-576: The other islands of the group. If HMS Pandora had maintained its course, it would eventually have reached Pitcairn Island and found the Bounty mutineers. The crew of the whaleship Essex , which a whale had attacked and sunk in November 1820, mistakenly believed that they had reached Ducie after a month at sea in two whaleboats. In fact they had reached Henderson Island . Captain Thomas Raine of Surrey , who

2552-590: The same year, the Sir Peter Scott Commemorative Expedition to the Pitcairn Islands of 1991–1992 (aka The Pitcairn Islands Scientific Expedition), In 2012, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Enric Sala produced Sharks of Lost Island including Ducie and all the Pitcairn Islands. Because of its inaccessibility, Ducie is rarely approached, but cruise ships make one or two landings per year. In addition, unrecorded visits are known to be made by freighters and tankers that dump residues on

2610-499: The ship, after which the master sailed one of the ship's boats to Pitcairn Island. He was assisted there by the local inhabitants and returned aboard the Edward O'Brien , an American boat, to rescue the rest of the crew. The incident was later investigated in a court in Liverpool, where the ultimate cause of the wreck was left undetermined, though possible causes included a calculation error by

2668-483: The southern Tuamotus . The atoll consists of four islets: Acadia—which is by far the largest—Pandora, Westward and Edwards. All three of the smaller islets can be accessed on foot from Acadia at low tide. The islets were named by Harald Rehder and John Randall, who visited the atoll during an expedition by the Smithsonian Institution in 1975. The atoll has a central lagoon, accessible by boat only by way of

2726-399: The subsidence model and the antecedent karst model, have been used to explain the development of atolls. According to Charles Darwin 's subsidence model, the formation of an atoll is explained by the sinking of a volcanic island around which a coral fringing reef has formed. Over geologic time, the volcanic island becomes extinct and eroded as it subsides completely beneath the surface of

2784-478: The subsidence of an island until MIS-11, Mid-Brunhes, long after the many the former islands had been completely submerged and buried by flat topped reefs during the Neogene. Atolls are the product of the growth of tropical marine organisms, and so these islands are found only in warm tropical waters. Volcanic islands located beyond the warm water temperature requirements of hermatypic (reef-building) organisms become seamounts as they subside, and are eroded away at

2842-685: The surface. An island that is located where the ocean water temperatures are just sufficiently warm for upward reef growth to keep pace with the rate of subsidence is said to be at the Darwin Point . Islands in colder, more polar regions evolve toward seamounts or guyots ; warmer, more equatorial islands evolve toward atolls, for example Kure Atoll . However, ancient atolls during the Mesozoic appear to exhibit different growth and evolution patterns. Coral atolls are important as sites where dolomitization of calcite occurs. Several models have been proposed for

2900-444: The term in his monograph, The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs . He recognized the word's indigenous origin and defined it as a "circular group of coral islets", synonymously with "lagoon-island". More modern definitions of atoll describe them as "annular reefs enclosing a lagoon in which there are no promontories other than reefs and islets composed of reef detritus " or "in an exclusively morphological sense, [as]

2958-665: The tropics and subtropics. The northernmost atoll in the world is Kure Atoll at 28°25′ N, along with other atolls of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands . The southernmost atolls in the world are Elizabeth Reef at 29°57′ S, and nearby Middleton Reef at 29°27′ S, in the Tasman Sea , both of which are part of the Coral Sea Islands Territory. The next southerly atoll is Ducie Island in the Pitcairn Islands Group, at 24°41′ S. The atoll closest to

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3016-409: The vegetation of the islets. Additionally, there are a number of species of coralline algae , including Porolithon onkodes , Porolithon gardineri , and Caulerpa racemosa . The atoll is populated by several species of birds, fish, and reptiles. In the lagoon, sparse, living coral can be found; the dominant species is Montipora bilaminata (family Acroporidae ). Most of the coral in the lagoon

3074-613: The world's total population, can be found on the island too. Meanwhile, the red-tailed tropicbirds and white terns that breed on Ducie are around 1% of the world population of each species. Phoenix petrels , which previously inhabited the atoll, apparently disappeared between the Whitney expedition in 1922 and the 1991–92 Pitcairn Scientific Expedition. The island has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA), principally for its colonies of Murphy's , herald , and Kermadec petrels , and Christmas shearwaters . In

3132-649: Was later recommended as a Ramsar Site . Major expeditions that came to the island to record its biota include the Whitney South Seas Expedition in 1922, the National Geographic Society-Oceanic Institute Expedition to Southeast Oceania of 1970–71 and the Smithsonian expedition of 1975. More recent expeditions include the MV Rambler Expedition by the Smithsonian in 1987, one by Raleigh International in

3190-572: Was led by Professor William Johnson Sollas of the University of Oxford . Geologists included Walter George Woolnough and Edgeworth David of the University of Sydney . Professor Edgeworth David led the expedition in 1897. The third expedition in 1898 was led by Alfred Edmund Finckh. San Francisco District, Ambo San Francisco District is one of eight districts of the province Ambo in Peru . This Huánuco Region geography article

3248-411: Was published in 1826. For nearly a hundred years it was the only available map of the island. In March 1867, John Daggett filed a claim on Ducie Island (referring to it as 'Ducer Island') with the U.S. State Department under the Guano Islands Act. Daggett was instructed to provide further information, including to affidavits of the quality and quantity of guano present on the island; however, according to

3306-459: Was searching for the survivors of Essex , in 1820 made the first recorded landing on Ducie. Frederick William Beechey , who arrived in HMS ; Blossom during November 1825, wrote the first comprehensive description of the island. Beechey's expedition did not land in the atoll, but members of the crew sailed around it in small boats. Based on Beechey's survey, the first Admiralty chart of the island

3364-426: Was sent in 1790 to capture the mutineers of HMS  Bounty . He named the island Ducie in honour of Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie . In 1867, a claim on the island was made under the United States's Guano Islands Act , but the claim was never bonded. The United Kingdom annexed the island on 19 December 1902 as part of the Pitcairn Islands. Due to its inaccessibility and the distance from Pitcairn, Ducie

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