Kure Atoll
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Image:KureAtoll.jpg Kure Atoll or Ocean Island (Hawaiian: Kānemiloha‘i) lies some 55 miles beyond Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands at Template:Coor dm. The International Date Line lies approximately 100 miles to the west. Kure is the northern-most coral atoll in the world. It consists of a 6-mile wide nearly circular barrier reef surrounding a shallow lagoon and several sand islets. The only land of significant size is called Green Island and is habitat for hundreds of thousands of seabirds.
Before the mid-1800s, Kure Atoll was visited by several ships and given new names each time. Many crews were stranded on Kure Atoll after being shipwrecked on the surrounding reefs and had to survive on the local seals, turtles, and birds. The shipwrecks remain on the reef today, including the USS Saginaw (1859). Kure is located in the middle of a major current which constantly washes up debris such as fishing nets and large numbers of cigarette lighters on the island. These pose threats to the local animals, especially birds, whose skeletons are frequently found with plastic in the stomach cavity. [1]
Formerly a U.S. Coast Guard LORAN station was located on Green Island. A short coral runway still remains on the island.
The geological history of Kure follows generally the description provided in the article on Midway, but Kure lies close to what is called the Darwin Point, the latitude at which reef growth just equals reef destruction by various physical forces. As Kure continues to be slowly carried along to the northwest by the motion of the Pacific Plate, it will move into waters too cool for coral and coralline algae growth to keep up with isostatic subsidence of the mountain. Barring unforseen evolution, it will then begin to join the other volcanic and reef-topped remnants of the Hawaiian-Emperor Chain to the northwest, that are now all seamounts.