Talk:Line Islands

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Enzino- I do not think it is helpful to change these names from Fanning Atoll to Fanning Island. For example, Christmas Island is an island in the Indian Ocean, Christmas Atoll is the one in Kiribati. Of course, one may often see these places called "Christmas Island" or "Fanning Island", but the trend in geography is to name atolls as atolls. - Marshman 22:42, 10 Sep 2004 (UTC)

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[edit] Trend? Trendy?

I do not think so. I have lived on Christmas Island recently, and no one says Christmas Atoll for naming it. Of course, it is an atoll (and the biggest and oldest in the world). It is also bigger than the other Christmas Island (Indian Ocean) and many more people live there. The official name, put in the Kiribati constitution (12th July 1979) is Christmas Island (or Kiritimati). For the Gilbertese these two names are the same. For the same reason, Fanning and Washington are called islands and not atolls. And most of the people there, even when they speak in Gilbertese, call them Fanning Island or Washington Island (the Gilbertese names are not very comon, even official with English names). There are two Christmas Islands in the world and that is not a problem for Wikipedia. --Enzino 10:19, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I disagree. They are islands, but a type of island called an atoll. But if you want to not pass on anything of geography and just use "island" not much more I can say. Obviously if you think the English name is used more than the Kiribati name, then change that too. I'm no longer interested in trying to take Wikipedia anywhere. - Marshman 16:58, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I have not the power of changing names. And I totally agree with you : these are atoll islands, not simply islands. But nowhere you will see, as a name, Christmas Atoll. Its name is Christmas Island, or Kiritimati (rare). As written in the constitution. I cannot change a constitution. --Enzino 18:39, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Origin of the name

By any chance, are the Line Islands named after the International Date Line? Thanks in advance.

No, the Line in question is just the Equator Line.

[edit] Oldest and Largest?

Because of the land mass, geologists presume that Xmas is the oldest atoll in the world (already theory of Charles Darwin).

What "geologists" ? I do not not accept that. I presume it is very old, but you will have to provide a reference and an explanation why size and age have any relationship to each other. It is not part of Darwin's "theory". Indeed, I would suggest that there is no relationship, as the size of an atoll is more likely related to the antecedent platform size, and Christmas is not the largest atoll. However, the fact that so much of Christmas Atoll is above sea level seems to suggest a long geological history. And "re-discovered" is revisionist. State what you mean and provide the evidence that it was discovered before Cook. Otherwise you are just being coy - Marshman 04:53, 3 December 2005 (UTC).

In the book of Darwin about coral atolls, there was a good description of birth of atolls and a precise reference to Xmas Island. I am not a revisionist. Thanks for considering that English is not my main language...Enzino 13:07, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

I am quite familiar with Darwin's hypothesis about the formation of atolls, and I simply do not recall that it correlates size with age. Since there are larger atolls, it would mean Xmas is not the oldest.
Sometimes historical revisionist insist on using "rediscovery" instead of discovery. I agree, it is very Eurocentric to assume Cook "discovered" a place where there is evidence of prior human habitation. On the other hand, it is widely accepted that the person that made something generally known to the world is the discoverer, not necessarily the first one there (they are two different events) requiring one to at least qualify "discovered by". Simply changing to "rediscovered by" without providing a prior history is being "coy" —as for example in: "I know, but I won't tell you". - Marshman 04:36, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Dry land?

On the picture it's easy to see that's there a lot of salt water on the atoll... The lagoon is not dry. It's just becoming dry. Even if the atoll is somehow dry (lack of rain), it's also humid. Just go there and see... When you revert, just check before.Enzino 13:17, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

As I have lived on Xmas, I am aware that what I said is not exactly correct. Much of the lagoon is now dry land, but not all of it. So to be correct will require further explanation - Marshman 04:36, 5 December 2005 (UTC).

Thanks of reconsedering further explanation: I have lived on Xmas, too.Enzino 21:23, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] "Discovered"

I have to say, it was rather strange to read "discovered" in this article. I don't mean to sound "coy" (I read through this talk page), but can't the article say something like "Captain Cook, the first European/Westerner/foreigner/whatever to sight the islands, named them..." or something like that? --SameerKhan 08:28, 23 September 2006 (UTC)


Well no one replied to my comment in a week so I went ahead and made a small change. --SameerKhan 08:28, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] U.S. claims

The article lists a number of islands and states that the U.S. gave up its claims to them . When? Why? How? WikiParker 17:45, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

Many of the islands in the Line group (with the exception of Jarvis, Palmyra and Kingman) were given to Kiribati upon its full independence in 1979. I have never researched "how" or "why" they were transfered and not the other three, but I may want to in the future. --Henry W. Schmitt 04:14, 23 September 2007 (UTC)