Jabat Island

Jabat Island

NASA picture of Jabat Atoll
Jabat Island
Geography
Location	North Pacific
Coordinates	7°45′06″N 168°58′36″E / 7.7517°N 168.9767°E
Archipelago	Ralik
Total islands	1
Area	0.6 km^2 (0.23 sq mi)
Highest elevation	3 m (10 ft)
Administration
Marshall Islands
Demographics
Population	112 (1998)
Ethnic groups	Marshallese

Jabat Island (or Jabot Island or Jabwot Island; Marshallese: Jebat, [tʲɛ͡ʌbˠɑtˠ]^[1]) is an island in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands. Its total land area is only 0.6 square kilometres (0.23 sq mi), and has a length of 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi). It is located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) from Ailinglapalap Atoll. Unlike most of the other islands in the Marshall Islands, Jabat Island is a rocky island rather than a coral atoll, although it surrounded by fringing shallow water coral reefs that extend for several kilometres beyond the outer reef to the north and south. The population of Jabat Island was 112 in 1998.

History

First recorded sighting of Jabat Island was by the Spanish navigator Alonso de Arellano on 8 January 1565 on board of the patache San Lucas.^[2]

Jabat Island was claimed by the Empire of Germany along with the rest of the Marshall Islands in 1884, and the Germans established a trading outpost. After World War I, the island came under the South Pacific Mandate of the Empire of Japan. Following the end of World War II, it came under the control of the United States as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands until the independence of the Marshall Islands in 1986.

References

1. Marshallese-English Dictionary - Place Name Index
2. Coello, Francisco "Conflicto hispano-alemán" Boletín de Sociedad Geográfica de Madrid, t.XIX. 2º semestre 1885, Madrid, p.288

External links

• Marshall Islands site
• Entry at Oceandots.com at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010)