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{{Short description|none}} <!-- This short description is INTENTIONALLY "none" - please see WP:SDNONE before you consider changing it! -->
'''[[Tuvalu]]''' consists of nine separate '''islands''': six [[atoll]]s and three [[reef]] islands.<ref name="SOPAC">{{cite web |title= EU-SOPAC Project Report 50: TUVALU TECHNICAL REPORT High-Resolution Bathymetric Survey Fieldwork undertaken from 19 September to 24 October 2004 |publisher= Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission c/o SOPAC Secretariat|date=October 2018 |url= ftp://ftp.gouv.nc/sig/PUBLIC/club_geomatique/2017/GT_donnees_geo_maritimes_22_06_2017/Rapport_de_leve_CPS.pdf| access-date=21 October 2019 }}</ref> An atoll typically consists of several [[islet]]s: Tuvalu has a total of 124 islands and islets. Each island is surrounded by a [[coral reef]]. Tuvalu's small, widely scattered atolls have poor soil and a total land area of only about {{convert|26|km2|0|abbr=off}} making Tuvalu the [[List of sovereign states by area|fourth-smallest country in the world]]. The sea level at the Funafuti tide gauge has been rising at a rate of 3.9 mm per year, and it has been determined that [[sea level rise|rising sea levels]] are causing more wave energy to be transferred across reef surfaces, which has tended to push more sand onto island shorelines, increasing islands’ land area.<ref name="PSK">{{cite web| last = Paul S. Kench, Murray R. Ford & Susan D. Owen |title= Patterns of island change and persistence offer alternate adaptation pathways for atoll nations |publisher= Nature Communications |year = 9 February 2018|url= http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-02954-1| access-date=11 February 2018}}</ref> Over a recent four-decade period, there was a net increase in the land area of the islets of 2.9% (73.5 ha), although the changes were not uniform: About 74% of them increased in size and about 27% decreased in size.▼
[[Tuvalu]] consists of nine separate islands: six [[atoll]]s and three [[reef]] islands.<ref name="SOPAC">{{cite web |title= EU-SOPAC Project Report 50: TUVALU TECHNICAL REPORT High-Resolution Bathymetric Survey Fieldwork undertaken from 19 September to 24 October 2004 |publisher= Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission c/o SOPAC Secretariat|date=October 2018 |url= ftp://ftp.gouv.nc/sig/PUBLIC/club_geomatique/2017/GT_donnees_geo_maritimes_22_06_2017/Rapport_de_leve_CPS.pdf| access-date=21 October 2019 }}</ref> An atoll typically consists of several [[Islet#Other_terms|motus]]: Tuvalu has a total of 124 islands and islets. Each island is surrounded by a [[coral reef]]. The soils of Tuvalu's islands are usually shallow, porous, alkaline, coarse-textured, with carbonate mineralogy and high [[pH]] values of up to 8.2 to 8.9.<ref name="CBD5">{{cite web| last = | first = |title= Tuvalu Fifth National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity|publisher= Government of Tuvalu|page=|year = 2016|url= https://www.cbd.int/reports/search/ | accessdate=11 November 2023}}</ref> The soils are usually deficient in most of the important nutrients needed for plant growth, so garden beds need to be enhanced with [[mulch]] to increase their fertility.<ref name="CBD5"/> Tuvalu's small, widely scattered atolls have a total land area of only about {{convert|26|km2|0|abbr=off}} making Tuvalu the [[List of sovereign states by area|fourth-smallest country in the world]].
▲
==Islands of Tuvalu==
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The name, Tuvalu, means "eight standing together" in [[Tuvaluan language|Tuvaluan]].
The [[Coral reefs of Tuvalu]] consists of three [[reef]] islands and six [[atolls]], containing approximately {{convert|710|km2|mi2|abbr=on}} of reef platforms.<ref name="MM20048">{{cite report|first= |last= Morris, C., & Mackay, K. |title = Status of coral reefs in the Southwest Pacific: Fiji, Nauru, New Caledonia, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu |year= 2008 |publisher= Status of coral reefs of the world (Townsville: Australian Institute of Marine Science)| volume=|pages=177–188|chapter= |issn= }}</ref> The reef islands have a different structure to the atolls, and are perhaps better described as “reef platforms,” as they are small, tabular platforms that lack the salt-water [[lagoon]] typically found on reef islands.<ref name="PSK1">{{cite
The smallest island, [[Niulakita]], which is the ninth island in the Tuvaluan archipelago, has not been continuously inhabited. It has been privately owned since 1944, when the [[Gilbert and Ellice Islands]] Colony administration purchased the island and granted people from [[Vaitupu]] permission to settle there. However, in 1949, a successor administration made the controversial decision to expel the Vaitupuans from Niulakita, and arrange for residents of [[Niutao]] to settle there instead, because Niutao was
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! bgcolor="#ffffff" colspan="25" width="85%" valign="top"| [[Image:Tv-map.png|329px|Islands of Tuvalu]] [[Image:Flag of Tuvalu-(star interpretation).svg|351px|Islands of Tuvalu represented on the [[Flag of Tuvalu|flag]]]]
|-
! Atoll/Island
! Main<br>village
! Land<br>area<br><small>(km
! Total<br>area<br><small>(km
! Pop.<br><small>([[census|c.]]
! Min. number<br>of islets
! Number of<br>villages
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| colspan=9 align=center bgcolor="#EFEFEF" | '''[[Atolls]]'''
|- bgcolor="#ffffff"
| [[Funafuti]]||[[Vaiaku]]|| align="right" | 2
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| [[Nanumea]]||[[
|- bgcolor="#ffffff"
| [[Nui (atoll)|Nui]]||[[Tanrake]]|| align="right" | 2
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| [[Nukufetau]]||[[Savave]]|| align="right" | 2
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| [[Nukulaelae]]||[[Fangaua]]|| align="right" | 1
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| [[Vaitupu]]||[[Asau, Tuvalu|Asau]]|| align="right" | 5
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| colspan=9 align=center bgcolor="#EFEFEF" | '''[[Islands]]'''
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| [[Nanumanga]]||[[Tonga (Tuvalu)|Tonga]] ||align=right| 3
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| [[Niulakita]]||[[Niulakita]] ||align=right| 0
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| [[Niutao]]||[[Kulia]] ||align=right| 2
|-
| colspan="9" align=center |'''Total'''
|- style="background: #CCCccc;"
| || || align="right" | 25
|-
| colspan=9 bgcolor="#ffffff" | <sup>1)</sup> main island plus islets in landlocked [[lagoon]]
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==Royal Society of London investigation of the formation of coral reefs at Funafuti==
[[File:Tuvalu - Funafuti - Approach.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Geographic coordinate system|Coordinates]]: {{Coord|-8.31|179.13 |display=inline}} ([[Funafuti]])]]
[[File:The atoll of Funafuti; borings into a coral reef and the results, being the report of the Coral Reef Committee of the Royal Society (1904) (14762635691).jpg|250px|right|thumb|The atoll of Funafuti; borings into a coral reef and the results, being the report of the Coral Reef Committee of the Royal Society (1904)]]
[[File:The atoll of Funafuti; borings into a coral reef and the results, being the report of the Coral Reef Committee of the Royal Society (1904) (14765813295).jpg|250px|right|thumb|The atoll of Funafuti; borings into a coral reef and the results, being the report of the Coral Reef Committee of the Royal Society (1904)]]
An expedition (''Funafuti Coral Reef Boring Expedition of the Royal Society'') under [[William Johnson Sollas|Professor William Sollas]] of [[Oxford University]], conducted by the [[Royal Society of London]] carried out drilling on the [[coral reef]] at [[Funafuti]] in 1896, 1897 and 1898.<ref name="JSW">{{cite journal |author= Sollas, William J. |title= Funafati: the study of a coral atoll|journal= Natural Science |volume= 14|year= 1899 |pages=17–37}}</ref>
[[HMS Penguin (1876)|HMS ''Penguin'']], under the command of Captain Arthur Mostyn Field, delivered the 1896 expedition to [[Funafuti]] in the [[Islands of Tuvalu|Ellice Islands]], arriving on 21 May 1896, and returned to [[Sydney]] on 22 August 1896.<ref name="CH-GA"/> From 1896 to 1899 the ''Penguin'' was under the command of Captain Arthur Mostyn Field and her surveying work included further voyages to [[Funafuti]] atoll to deliver the expeditions of the Royal Society in 1897 and 1898.<ref>[http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/archive/catalogue/record.cfm?ID=FIE Admiral Sir Arthur Mostyn Field (1855–1950) from nmm.ac.uk]</ref> The surveys carried out by the ''Penguin'' resulted in the preparation of the [[Admiralty chart|Admiralty Nautical Chart]] 2983 for the islands.<ref name="ANC">{{cite book |title= Admiralty Nautical Chart 2983|publisher= United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO)}}</ref>
The Royal Society of London were investigating the [[formation of coral reefs]] and whether traces of shallow-water organisms could be found at depth in the [[coral]] of Pacific [[atoll]]s. Three expeditions used drilling equipment to take core samples of the coral reef. The boreholes on [[Fongafale]] islet are at the site now called ''Darwin's Drill'',<ref name="PDN">{{cite book |last1=Lal |first1=Andrick |title=South Pacific Sea Level & Climate Monitoring Project – Funafuti atoll |url=http://www.pacificdisaster.net/oip/FinalReport/Annex/3_Survey%20LDP/Survey_Diagrams_JPACE-TV.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203011855/http://www.pacificdisaster.net/oip/FinalReport/Annex/3_Survey%20LDP/Survey_Diagrams_JPACE-TV.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 February 2014 |publisher=SPC Applied Geoscience and Technology Division (SOPAC Division of SPC) |pages=35 & 40}}</ref> A goal of the expeditions was to drill down to confirm that the coral material was located on a base of volcanic rock. This investigation followed the work on [[The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs|the structure and distribution of coral reefs]] conducted by [[Charles Darwin]] in the Pacific. However, the geologic history of atolls is more complex than Darwin (1842) and Davis (1928) envisioned.<ref name="WRD">{{cite journal|last1= Dickinson |first1=William R. |title= Pacific Atoll Living: How Long Already and Until When?|url= https://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/19/3/pdf/i1052-5173-19-3-4.pdf|year= 2009 |journal= GSA Today |volume=19|issue=3|pages=4–10 |doi= 10.1130/GSATG35A.1 |doi-access= free }}</ref>
===First expedition (1896)===
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===Third expedition (1898)===
The expedition was led by [[Alfred Edmund Finckh]] of the University of Sydney.<ref name="CC">{{cite
==Results of the Royal Society expeditions==
The purpose of the expedition was to attempt to settle the question as to the formation of coral atolls. The first expedition experienced defects in the boring machinery and the bore penetrated only slightly more than 100 feet (approx. 31 m). The second expedition reached a depth of 557 feet (170 m). The third expedition was successful in carrying the bore to 1,114 feet (340 m).<ref name="SMH1897">{{cite book |title= The Funafuti Coral-Boring Expedition, Address by Professor David |url= http://australianmuseum.net.au/Uploads/Journals/16695/494_complete.pdf |date= 11 December 1897 |publisher= The Sydney Morning Herald }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17092086 |title=TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD. |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=11 September 1934 |access-date=20 June 2012 |page=6 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> The results provided support for [[Charles Darwin]]'s [[The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs#Theory of coral atoll formation|theory of subsidence]];<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9782421 |title=CORAL FORMATION. |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)|The Argus]] |location=Melbourne |date=10 December 1897 |access-date=19 June 2012 |page=5 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> in which there are four stages in development of coral reefs: a [[volcanic island]] forms, is surrounded by a fringing [[coral reef]], as it subsides slowly a wide barrier reef forms, then after it has sunk below sea level the coral continues to grow forming a circular [[atoll]]. However, the geologic history of atolls is more complex than Darwin (1842) and Davis (1920 & 1928) envisioned.<ref name="WRD"
==Structure of Funafuti atoll==
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The average depth in the Funafuti lagoon (''Te Namo'') is about 20 fathoms (36.5 metres or 120 feet).<ref name="AC">{{cite book |last=Coates|first=A. | title= Western Pacific Islands |year= 1970 |publisher= H.M.S.O. |pages=349}}</ref>
{{
==See also==
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* [[Funafuti Conservation Area]]
* [[Geography of Tuvalu]]
* '''''<small>{{portal-inline|Islands}}</small>'''''
* '''''<small>{{portal-inline|Tuvalu}}</small>'''''
==References==
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{{Islands of Tuvalu}}
{{Oceania topic|List of islands of}}
{{Articles on first-level administrative divisions of Oceanian countries}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Islands Of Tuvalu}}
[[Category:Islands of Tuvalu| ]]
[[Category:Atolls of Tuvalu| ]]
[[Category:Subdivisions
[[Category:Lists of administrative divisions|Tuvalu, Islands]]
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[[Category:Lists of islands by country|Tuvalu]]
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