Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Marquesas Islands (/ m ɑːr ˈ k eɪ s ə s / mar-KAY-səss; French: Îles Marquises or Archipel des Marquises or Marquises; Marquesan: Te Henua ʻEnana (North Marquesan) and Te Fenua ʻEnata (South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean.
Reenactment of a Viking landing in L'Anse aux Meadows. Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories are speculative theories which propose that visits to the Americas, interactions with the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, or both, were made by people from elsewhere prior to Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the Caribbean in 1492. [1]
The islands are part of the Florida Keys, separated from the rest of the Florida Keys, which are farther east, by the Boca Grande Channel, which is 6 miles (9.7 km) wide until Boca Grande Key, the westernmost of the Mule Keys. Only the Dry Tortugas are farther west, 36 miles (58 km) west of the Marquesas Keys.
The Marquesas hotspot is marked 26 on the map. The Marquesas hotspot is a volcanic hotspot in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is responsible for the creation of the Marquesas Islands – a group of eight main islands and several smaller ones – and a few seamounts.
Pukarua Atoll was first visited by Europeans in 1797, when British mariner James Wilson was sailing from Tongatapu to the Marquesas on the ship Duff. He found Pukarua uninhabited, but saw the tokens of former occupancy. Wilson named Pukarua "Searle Island" after a friend he had in the Transport office in England.
Ha‘ava is the Marquesan name of the 4 km (2.5 mi.) wide channel that separates Tahuata from Hiva Oa, in the southern Marquesas Islands. The French name for the passage is Canal du Bordelais. [1] The seas generally move through the channel at speeds of one to two knots. Given the prevailing westerly trade winds of the region and the funneling ...
The island are approximately at 9° 20' south of the Equator and 140° 54' west of Greenwich. [7] These islands are part of the Marquesas Islands. From the Marquesas archipelago, Ingraham sailed north to the Sandwich Islands before sailing on to the Queen Charlotte Islands on the northwest coast of North America. [4]
With a combined land area of 405 square miles (1,050 km 2), [2] the Marquesas are among the largest island groups of French Polynesia, Nuku Hiva being the second largest island in the entire territory, after Tahiti. With the exception of Motu One, all the islands of the Marquesas are of volcanic origin.