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Tabuaeran, also known as Fanning Island or Fanning Atoll (both Gilbertese and English names are recognised), is one of the Line Islands of the central Pacific Ocean and part of Kiribati. It is an atoll located at . The land area is 33.73 km2, and the population in 2010 was 1,960. The maximum elevation is about 3 m (10 ft) above high tide. The lagoon has an area of 110 square km. The deepest water in the lagoon is about 15 metres, and most of it is very shallow.〔 ==History== At some 900 miles distant, Tabuaeran is one of the closest landfalls to the Hawaiian Islands. The atoll was possibly used as a stopover by the Polynesians who first settled Hawaii. Artifacts have been discovered that indicate possible early settlements by people from Polynesia—probably the Cook Islands or Tonga. Historically the first recorded mariner to sight Tahanea atoll was American captain Edmund Fanning of the American ship ''Betsy'' on June 11, 1798; it was named for him.〔Bryan, E.H. ''American Polynesia and the Hawaiian Chain''. Honolulu, Hawaii: Tongg Publishing Company, 1941 pages 141-144.〕 At the time, the atoll was uninhabited and, like all of the Line Islands, had no truly native population. After Fanning, it was visited by whalers of several nationalities. Before 1855, Captain Henry English and 150 laborers from Manihiki settled, and began producing coconut oil for export. He put the island under British protection, when it was visited by W.H. Morshead on HMS ''Dido'' on October 16, 1855. Fanning was formally annexed to Great Britain by Captain William Wiseman of HMS ''Caroline'' on March 15, 1888. A deep opening was blasted, thereafter called the English Channel, on the west side of the atoll. Tabuaeran hosted a station on the Trans-Pacific Cable between Canada and Australia, a part of the All Red Line, beginning in 1902. Fanning Island Post Office opened on 29 November 1902. In September 1914 (World War I), the cable station was shelled by a German cruiser, the ''Nürnberg'', and was slightly damaged. A landing force went ashore to complete the destruction. In 1939 the atoll was incorporated into the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. In 1979, it gained independence, becoming part of the Republic of Kiribati (pronounced kee-ree-bahs). Tabuaeran features in John Updike's short story "The Blessed Man of Boston, My Grandmother's Thimble, and Fanning Island." An airfield was constructed on Napari (Napali) islet when the University of Hawaii operated a tide monitoring station on the atoll. That station closed in 1981 and the airfield is no longer in use.〔 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「Tabuaeran」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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