The Islands
- 156-acre (0.63 km2) Nihoa is the youngest of the NWHI, and the tallest, with 900-foot (270 m) vertical cliffs. It represents the southwestern part of the island's former volcanic cone. Ancient Hawaiians might have stayed here long-term.
- 40-acre (160,000 m2) Necker Island is hook shaped and 270 feet (82 m) tall at its summit. Barren of vegetation, it was used by Ancient Hawaiians for religious purposes, but not for long-term habitation.
- French Frigate Shoals is an atoll, the largest region of coral reefs in Hawaii, at 200 square miles (520 km2). The atoll is composed of a dozen or so small islands, Tern Island housing an airport and human habitations.
- Gardner Pinnacles is made up of two small basalt peaks, the last rocky island in Hawaii. While the island itself is tiny, the surrounding reef is expansive and diverse.
- 166-square-mile (430 km2) Maro Reef is an extremely fertile reef system that has been described as a "coral garden."
- Laysan is a 913-acre (3.69 km2), low, sandy island with a natural lake in its interior, one of only five such lakes in Hawaii. It has arguably the most diverse ecosystem in the NWHI, and hosts about two million seabirds of seventeen species.
- Lisianski Island, only 400 acres (1.6 km2), is geologically akin to Laysan, without the lake. Though the island is slightly less biodiverse, the surrounding reef is very fertile.
- Pearl and Hermes Atoll is an atoll very similar to French Frigate Shoals, but with much less dry land. For this reason, it was mostly ignored by guano miners and feather hunters.
- Midway Atoll is the most commonly known of the NWHI, and is also the largest. The Battle of Midway was fought here, and the island remains permanently inhabited.
- Circular Kure Atoll contains the 236-acre (0.96 km2) Green Island, which used to host a LORAN station and a runway, but these have since been demolished. In terms of biodiversity, Kure is one of the less impressive of the NWHI.
Read more about this topic: Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
Famous quotes containing the word islands:
“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line—the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea. It was a phase of this problem that caused the Civil War.”
—W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt)
“Consider the islands bearing the names of all the saints, bristling with forts like chestnut-burs, or Echinidæ, yet the police will not let a couple of Irishmen have a private sparring- match on one of them, as it is a government monopoly; all the great seaports are in a boxing attitude, and you must sail prudently between two tiers of stony knuckles before you come to feel the warmth of their breasts.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)