Jarvis Island

Jarvis Island is an uninhabited coral island in the South Pacific Ocean, an unincorporated territory of the United States and part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

Guano Islands Act: A United States law enacted in 1856 that authorized claims to unoccupied islands containing guano deposits. The act provided the legal basis for the United States’ nineteenth-century claim to Jarvis Island.
Coral island: An island formed largely from coral reefs and their accumulated skeletal material. Jarvis is a low coral island rather than a volcanic peak.
Seabird colony: A site where seabirds gather to breed and raise their young. Jarvis’s isolation supports large breeding populations of seabirds.
Palmyra Atoll: A largely uninhabited atoll in the central Pacific that is an incorporated U.S. territory. Palmyra is nearby in the broader region but has a different legal status and reef structure.
United States Exploring Expedition: A United States naval and scientific expedition that surveyed parts of the Pacific from 1838 to 1842. Its 1841 visit helped establish the island’s location and early recorded description.
South Pacific: The broad southern region of the Pacific Ocean and its islands. Jarvis lies near the equator in this oceanic region.
Marine protected area: A geographically defined area managed to conserve marine ecosystems and resources. Monument protections cover the waters around Jarvis as well as its terrestrial habitat.
Johnston Atoll: A remote U.S.-administered atoll in the North Pacific, historically used for military purposes. Its extensive military history contrasts with Jarvis’s brief settlement and guano extraction.
Phoenix Guano Company: A nineteenth-century company that mined guano on Pacific islands, including Jarvis Island. The company exploited Jarvis’s phosphate-rich seabird deposits after the island was claimed.
Unincorporated territory of the United States: A U.S. territory where the Constitution applies only in part, as determined by Congress. This status distinguishes Jarvis from states and incorporated U.S. territories.

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