List of islands of Tuvalu: Difference between revisions

[[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 [[isletIslet#Other_terms|motus]]s: 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 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&nbsp;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 journal| last = Paul S. Kench, Murray R. Ford & Susan D. Owen |title= Patterns of island change and persistence offer alternate adaptation pathways for atoll nations |journal= Nature Communications |date = 9 February 2018|volume= 9 |issue= 1 |page= 605 |doi= 10.1038/s41467-018-02954-1 |pmid= 29426825 |pmc= 5807422 }}</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.

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 journal| last = Paul S. Kench, Murray R. Ford & Susan D. Owen |title= Patterns of island change and persistence offer alternate adaptation pathways for atoll nations (Supplementary Note 1) |journal= Nature Communications |date = 9 February 2018|volume= 9 |issue= 1 |page= 605 |doi= 10.1038/s41467-018-02954-1 |pmid= 29426825 |s2cid= 256641955 |url= http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-02954-1| access-date=11 February 2018|pmc= 5807422 }}</ref> The reef platforms do have a completely enclosed rim of dry land, and the rim surrounds the remnants of a lagoon, but these lagoon remnants have no connection to the open sea, and tend to dry up as coral debris accumulates in them over time.<ref name="CH-GA">{{cite journal|ref=Hedley|last1= Hedley |first1= Charles|title= General account of the Atoll of Funafuti|url= http://australianmuseum.net.au/Uploads/Journals/16686/487_complete.pdf |year= 1896 |journal= Australian Museum Memoir |volume=3|issue=2|pages=1–72 |doi= 10.3853/j.0067-1967.3.1896.487 }}</ref> For example, [[Niutao]] has two brackish, saline lakes which are the degraded remnants of an ancient lagoon.

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 feltconsidered to be overpopulated.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://tighar.org/wiki/Foua_Tofiga |title=Foua Tofiga |publisher=tighar.org |access-date=26 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202034200/http://tighar.org/wiki/Foua_Tofiga |archive-date=2 February 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Niulakita is a separate local government district, but it is administered as part of Niutao, and is represented in the Parliament of Tuvalu by members of the constituency of Niutao.

| [[Nanumea]]||[[NanumeaLolua]]|| align="right" | 3.87|| align="right" | 22||align=right| 512 || align="right" | 5||align=right|2||05°41′S 176°09′E