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Nikumaroro, or Gardner Island, is part of the Phoenix Islands, Kiribati, in the western Pacific Ocean. It is a remote, elongated, triangular coral atoll with profuse vegetation and a large central marine lagoon. Nikumaroro is approximately long by wide. There are two narrow entrances through the rim, both of which are blocked by a wide reef which is dry at low tide. The ocean beyond the reef is very deep and the only anchorage is at the island's west end, across the reef from the ruins of a mid-twentieth century British colonial village, but this is safe only with the southeast trade winds. Landing has always been difficult and is most often done south of the anchorage. Although occupied at various times during the past, the island is uninhabited today.〔Resture, Jane. ("Gardner Island (Nikumaroro) Phoenix Group." ) ''Jane Resture''. Retrieved: 25 January 2015.〕 Kiribati declared the Phoenix Islands Protected Area in 2006, with the park being expanded in 2008. The 425,300-square-kilometer (164,200-square-mile) marine marine reserve contains eight coral atolls including Nikumaroro.〔Howard, Brian Clark. ("Pacific nation bans fishing in one of world's largest marine parks." ) ''National Geographic News'', 16 June 2014. Retrieved: 15 May 2015.〕〔("Phoenix Islands Protected Area." ) ''Government of Kiribati''. Retrieved: 17 November 2015.〕 Nikumaroro is one possible location where pilot Amelia Earhart might have crashed in July 1937 during her ill-fated final flight, attempting to circumnavigate the globe.〔("US reportedly to search again for Amelia Earhart's plane." ) ''MSNBC'', 20 March 2012. Retrieved: 17 November 2015.〕〔Pruitt, Sarah. ("Researchers identify fragment of Amelia Earhart’s plane ." ) ''history.com'', 29 October 2014. Retrieved: 29 October 2014.〕 ==Geography== Thick scrub and ''Pisonia'' forest cover the land surface. The trees grow in height and result in decomposing leaf material in the soil.〔 Coconut palms remain from the attempts to operate a plantation on the island.〔 The scarcity of fresh water on Nikumaroro has proven problematic for residents in the past, and contributed directly to the failure of a British project to colonize the island from 1938 to 1963. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nikumaroro」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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