Visit Kure Atoll (Ocean Island), Northwestern Hawaiian Islands

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Kure Atoll or Ocean Island is an atoll in the Pacific Ocean 48 nautical miles (89 km; 55 mi) beyond Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The only land of significant size is called Green Island and is habitat for hundreds of thousands of seabirds. A short, unused and unmaintained runway and a small abandoned Coast Guard station are located on the island. It consists of a 6-mile (10 km) wide nearly circular barrier reef surrounding a shallow lagoon and several sandislets. Hōlanikū, meaning “bringing forth heaven” is a single name that stands alone, corresponding to the location of Kure Atoll at the very end of the island chain. This name is used in many different contexts to describe the homeland of gods such as Kāne and Kanaloa, Nāmakaokaha’i, and Wainuʻu. Mokupāpapa literally means “flat island,” which was ascribed to Kure Atoll by Hawaiian Kingdom officials in the 19th century, when King David Kalākaua sent an envoy to the atoll to take “formal possession” of it. Born 28 million years ago from the same hot spot fueling the eruptions of Kilauea and Mauna Loa on Hawaiʻi island, Hōlanikū, the eldest island in the Hawaiian archipelago is an oval-shaped atoll, about 6 miles wide at its maximum diameter. Hōlanikū is the northernmost coral atoll in the world, placing it at the Darwin Point. Scientists theorize that where coral growth occurs at a slower rate than the subsidence of the atoll (due to moving into cooler waters), the atoll will sink below the surface with no further possibility of a surface connection. Kure’s coral is still growing slightly faster than the atoll is subsiding. Further north and west, the Emperor Seamounts foretell the future of the atoll and all of the Hawaiian Archipelago. The seamounts lie in water too deep and cool for reef building coral growth. As Hōlanikū continues its slow migration atop the Pacific Plate, it too will eventually slip below the surface.

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