St. Pierre Island

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For the French island off the coast of Canada see Saint-Pierre and Miquelon.

St Pierre Island is a raised reef island west of Providence Atoll and part of Farquhar Group, which belongs to the Outer Islands of the Seychelles. The island is located at (9°17′S, 50°44′E), 35 km west of Cerf Island of Providence Atoll, 704 km from Mahé and 500 km ENE of Aldabra. The island is nearly circular, 1.6 km east-west by 1.4 km north-south, with a land area of 1.68 km². It is uninhabited. Guano was mined here between 1906 and 1972 converting an island once densely forested with Pisonia to the current barren, pitted landscape. There is a derelict jetty and settlement on the north west shore, which is accessible by boat in the calmest weather only.

The island is barren except for a clump of casuarina trees up 12 m high on its northwestern part, covering a third of the land area. The seaward faces of St. Pierre Island are abrupt and undercut fossil coral cliffs, 2.4 to 3 m high and broken at one point only (a 5 m wide inlet to a cove with sandy bottom), making the island virtually inaccessible from the sea. In the center is a depression more or less of sea level. The ceaseless sea swell has undercut these faces; jets of water are thrown up in many places by each wave as it strikes "blow-holes" worn out of the coral. At the southeast shore of the island, the wearing away has caused the formation of flat shelves. St. Pierre has a gently sloping seabed on the exposed southeastern coast and a steep drop off on the northwest.