Anuanurunga is an

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical parts of the oceans and seas where corals can develop. Most ...

French Polynesia French Polynesia ( ; ; ) is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole #Governance, overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than in the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. The t ...

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. It is part of the Duke of Gloucester Islands, a subgroup of the Tuamotu group. Anuanurunga's nearest neighbor is Nukutepipi, which is located about to the ESE. Anuanurunga is a very small atoll. It is ring-shaped, measuring approximately in diameter with a total area of . Its reef is quite broad, enclosing completely the small lagoon. There are four relatively large islands on its reef, as well as a few small motu. Anuanurunga Atoll is currently uninhabited.

History

First sighting recorded by Europeans was by the Spanish expedition of

Pedro Fernández de Quirós Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for '' Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meani ...

on 4 February 1606. With the other three atolls of the Duke of Gloucester Islands they were named ''Cuatro Coronas'' (Four Crowns in Spanish). British naval officer and explorer Philip Carteret visited it in 1767. He named this atoll ''Four Crowns''.

Administration

Administratively the four atolls of the Duke of Gloucester Islands, including the uninhabited ones of Anuanuruga, Anuanuraro and Nukutepipi, belong to the commune of Hereheretue, which is associated to the Hao commune.

References

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Diversity of the French Polynesian atolls

External links

Atolls of the Tuamotus {{FrenchPolynesia-geo-stub