Figure 46. Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll area GLORIA sidescan-sonar mosaic.

Background

Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll are two of the Line Islands located in the Central Pacific and are currently United States territories. The Line Islands are grouped into three categories; The Northern, Central and Southern Line Islands. Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll fall within the Northern Line Islands. This GLORIA image shows about 215,000 sq km of seafloor, representing the northern two-thirds of the EEZ around Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, the southwestern third of this EEZ area was not imaged. Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll are on the 4,200-km-long northwest-southeast-trending Line Islands Ridge and are located approximately 1,100 miles southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii.

Kingman Reef, an unincorporated territory, is predominantly a submerged, uninhabitable atoll located approximately halfway between Honolulu, Hawaii, and American Samoa. Palmyra Atoll, an incorporated territory, lies southeast of Kingman Reef.

The GLORIA data for the U.S. EEZ Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll area were acquired on a single cruise (F-3-91-CP) and followed the completion of the U.S. EEZ Johnston Atoll area survey. The cruise departed Hilo, Hawaii, on February 24, 1991 and was completed on March 25, 1991. Data acquired during this survey were later processed and mosaicked to complete 7 digital images of the seafloor. Two mosaics are of a 2-degree by 2-degree area; 2 mosaics are of 2-degree and 15 minute by 2-degree area; 1 mosaic is of 1-degree by 2-degree and 45 minutes area; 1 mosaic is of 1.5-degree by 2-degree area; and 1 mosaic is of 1-degree 45' by 2-degree 45' area.

Figure 47. Map showing field activities for GLORIA sidescan-sonar data collection in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll area.