Chapter I Intro & Objectives - SPREP

PHOENIX ISLANDS PROTECTED AREA MANAGEMENT PLAN
Chapter III. Background, 1. Physical Setting of the Islands
Draft 1 March 2007
Enderbury has an elevation of 3.96 m (13 ft) along the rim and an elevation of about 1.2 m (4
ft) in the middle (Hydrographic Office 1940). The Hydrographer of the Navy (1969)
reported that the island was 10.1 m in elevation. Bryan (1941, 1942, and 1974) reported the
elevation to be 4.6 to 6.7 m (15 to 22 ft).
A satellite image of Enderbury is provided in Figure III-1.4 below.
A
Figure III-1.4. Enderbury:
A - Satellite image (source: http://oceandots.com/pacific/rawaki/enderbury.htm);
B – Chart (source: U.S. Government Chart of 1943).
B
Lagoon - In the middle was a small sunken lagoon (Hydrographic Office 1940). Waesche
(1938) reported that in the center of the island was a depression that was partially filled with
soft muddy materials that was principally bird guano. The big pond in the middle of the
island was identified as a fish pond (Government of Kiribati 1995). Dead clam shells were
found inside of the big pond.
Lagoon Openings - Stoddar and Fosberg (1994) described the channels from the lagoon to the
sea, called by their Poloynesian name, hoa. They reported that Enderbury had paleohoa
(ancient hoa) that were associated with lagoonal emergent reefs of the Holocene. Tracey et al
(1972) noted that the small islets in the lagoon were relict reefs 0.8 to 0.9 m (2.5 to 3.0 ft)
above the lagoon surfaced. Carbon-14 dating of Tridacna shells and coral from an islet
indicated that the reef was living 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. At that time, the lagoon was open
to the sea.
Reef Shelf - The shelf was about 69 m (75 yards) wide, the shelf then dropped off rapidly
(Hydrographic Office 1940, 55 to 183 m (60 to 200 yards) according to Bryan 1941, 1942,
and 1974). The northeast corner has a shoal that extends out about 1,097 m (1,200 yards).
On the southeastern corner, the shoal extends out about 594 m (650 yards).
Soil – The soil on Enderbury was primarily large slabs of compact coral rock interspersed
with sandy soil (Maude 1937). The soil appeared to be more fertile than Abariringa
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