🇺🇸 Wake Island (Ānen Kio, lit. 'island of the kio flower'; also known as Wake Atoll) is a coral atoll in the Micronesia subregion of the north-western Pacific Ocean. The atoll is composed of three islets and a reef surrounding a lagoon. The nearest inhabited island is Utirik Atoll in the Marshall Islands, located 592 miles (953 kilometers) to the southeast. The United States administers Wake Island as an unorganized and unincorporated territory, and it is one of the nine insular areas that comprise the United States Minor Outlying Islands. The Marshall Islands also claim Wake Island.
Wake Island was probably discovered by prehistoric Austronesian mariners before Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira made the first recorded discovery in 1568. European and American ships visited the atoll in the 19th century, before the United States claimed the atoll in 1899. The island had little development until 1935, when Pan American Airways constructed an airfield and hotel to serve as a waypoint for trans-Pacific flying boats. Japan seized the island at the outset of World War II in December 1941; it remained under Japanese occupation until the end of the war in September 1945.
The Federal Aviation Administration, (FAA), originally, Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), was responsible for administration of Wake atoll from 1945 to 1972.
Pan American Airways continued post-war commercial operations on the atoll until 1972, when widespread use of Boeing 747s made a trans-Pacific layover obsolete. The United States Air Force took over administration after commercial flights ceased.
Wake Island is administered by the United States Air Force under an agreement with the Department of the Interior. The centre of activity on the atoll is at Wake Island Airfield, which is primarily used as a mid-Pacific refueling stop for military aircraft and as an emergency landing area. The 9,800-foot (3,000 m) runway is the longest strategic runway in the Pacific islands. South of the runway is the Wake Island Launch Center, a missile launch site. The military also used the atoll as a processing location for Vietnamese refugees during Operation New Life in 1975. The island has no permanent inhabitants, but approximately 100 people live there at any given time. The natural areas of Wake are mix of trees, scrub, and grasses that prefer tropical weather and get by on the limited rainfall. Thousands of hermit crabs and rats live on Wake, in the past there were also feral cats which had been there to help control the rat population which at one time was estimated at 2 million. The Wake Island rail, a small flightless bird, used to live on the atoll but went extinct during World War II. Many species of seabird also visit Wake, although because of the thick vegetation in most natural areas prefer nesting on a mowed grass area on Wilkes Island, which is designated a bird sanctuary.
The submerged and emergent lands at Wake Island comprise a unit of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. The island also has a number of remains from its history, including seaplane port and hotel remains, various old buildings, World War II bunkers, and war memorials. Occasionally, inhabitants discover human remains from World War II grave sites – as recently as 2011 – and unexploded ordinances.
The atoll consists of three islands. The main island is also called Wake Island. This island, shaped like a V pointing to the east, hosts the airstrip and most buildings. In the north-east is Peale Island, which was home to the old Pan American hotel and seaplane base, and in the south-west is Wilkes Island. Wake Island is connected to Wilkes via a causeway, but Peale and Wake are not connected as the wooden bridge burned down around 2002.
Wake is 3,714 km (2308 miles) west of Honolulu and 2,426 km (1507 miles) north-east of Guam.
Etymology Wake Island derives its name from British sea captain Samuel Wake, who rediscovered the atoll in 1796 while in command of the Prince William Henry. The name is sometimes attributed to Captain William Wake, who also is reported to have discovered the atoll from the Prince William Henry in 1792.
Peale Island is named for the naturalist Titian Peale, who visited the island in 1841, and Wilkes Island is named for U.S. Naval officer Charles Wilkes, who led the U.S. expedition to Wake Atoll in 1841.
Geography Wake is an atoll composed of three islands in a V shape that encloses a shallow lagoon, with a size of 3.3 by 7.7 km, with a highest elevation of 6.4 meters above sea level. The island is ringed by a wide sandy beach of about 90 yards wide, with an offshore fringing reef. The average elevation of the islands is about 3–4 meters. The total land area of the islands is about 6.5 km² (2.5 miles2).
Wake is located two-thirds of the way from Honolulu to Guam. Honolulu is 2,300 mi (3,700 km) to the east, and Guam 1,510 mi (2,430 km) to the west. Midway Atoll is 1,170 mi (1,880 km) to the northeast. The closest land is the uninhabited Bokak Atoll, 348 mi (560 km) away in the Marshall Islands, to the southeast. The atoll is to the west of the International Date Line and in the Wake Island Time Zone (UTC+12), the easternmost time zone in the United States and almost one day ahead of the 50 states.
Although Wake is officially called an island in its singular form, it is geologically an atoll composed of three islets (Wake, Wilkes, and Peale islets) and a reef surrounding a central lagoon. A shallow channel separates Wake and Peale while Wilkes is connected by a causeway to Wake. Also, Wilkes is almost split in half by the partially completed submarine channel, which at times has washed through.
The lagoon is about a meter deep on average, with a maximum depth of 4.5 meters. The island is sitting on a coral cap to a seamount, and going beyond the reef the water deepens to the 5–6 km depth of the abyssal plain.
The island consists of a coral reef that grew on the top of an old volcano, and the islands are made of coral and sand. In the Pacific many islands are volcanic in origin, sometimes they do not make it to the surface and form an underwater seamount, or they can break the surface and form an island. When the volcano becomes extinct, it begins to be eroded by waves, but when it is close enough to the surface and in warm enough water, coral will grow on it, usually in a ring. As the volcano is worn away, the coral ring continues growing, which is why there are many coral atolls and reefs across the Pacific. (see also guyot)
The island is covered in boulders that average 5–6 feet in diameter (1–2 meters) especially on the southern side of Wake and Wilke islands. Overall, the islands are composed of broken down coral fragments and white sand.
The atoll has a number of named capes and points: • Wilkes Island (Split islet on the south and west) ◦ Kuku Point (Western cape of Wilkes) ◦ Wilkes Channel (a channel to the small port/harbor area on the south side of the island) ◦ Submarine channel (a man-made channel for a partially completed World War II submarine harbor also called New Channel) • Peale Island (on the north and west, separated from Wake by narrow channel) ◦ Toki Point (Western cape of Peale) ◦ Flipper Point (Tip of Peale island land that extends into the lagoon pointing west) • Wake Island (excluding the islets) ◦ Heel Point (the north cape of Wake islet before it turns towards Peale) ◦ Peacock Point (the Southern and eastern point of Wake island) ◦ Causeway crossing Wilkes Channel to Wilkes Island.