Marshall Islands

Coordinates: 9°N 168°E / 9°N 168°E / 9; 168

The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands (Marshallese: Aolepān Aorōkin M̧ajeļ), is an island country located near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the International Date Line. Geographically, the country is part of the larger island group of Micronesia. The country's population of 53,158 people (at the 2011 Census) is spread out over 29 coral atolls, comprising 1,156 individual islands and islets. The islands share maritime boundaries with the Federated States of Micronesia to the west, Wake Island to the north,Kiribati to the south-east, and Nauru to the south. About 27,797 of the islanders (at the 2011 Census) live on Majuro, which contains the capital.

Micronesian colonists gradually settled the Marshall Islands during the 2nd millennium BC, with inter-island navigation made possible using traditional stick charts. Islands in the archipelago were first explored by Europeans in the 1520s, with Spanish explorer Alonso de Salazar sighting an atoll in August 1526. Other expeditions by Spanish and English ships followed. The islands derive their name from British explorer John Marshall, who visited in 1788. The islands were historically known by the inhabitants as "jolet jen Anij" (Gifts from God).

Arno

The Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber.

Source and route

The river originates on Mount Falterona in the Casentino area of the Apennines, and initially takes a southward curve. The river turns to the west near Arezzo passing through Florence, Empoli and Pisa, flowing into the Tyrrhenian Sea at Marina di Pisa.

With a length of 241 kilometres (150 mi), it is the largest river in the region. It has many tributaries: Sieve at 60 kilometres (37 mi) long, Bisenzio at 49 kilometres (30 mi), and the Era, Elsa, Pesa, and Pescia. The drainage basin amounts to more than 8,200 square kilometres (3,200 sq mi) and drains the waters of the following subbasins:

Arno Atoll

Arno Atoll (Marshallese: Arņo, [ɑ̯ɑɳˠːʌ͡ɔɔ̯]) is a coral atoll of 133 islands in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district of the Ratak Chain of the Marshall Islands. Its total land area is only 5 square miles (13 km²). Unlike most other atolls, Arno encloses three different lagoons, a large central one, and two smaller ones in the north and east. Its main lagoon encloses an area of 130.77 square miles (338.7 km²). At a distance of only 20 kilometres (12 mi), it is the closest atoll to the Marshall Islands capital, Majuro Atoll, and can be seen looking east from Majuro on a clear day at low tide.

The population of Arno Atoll was 2,069 at the 1999 census. The most populous islets are Ajeltokrok, Kobjeltak, Rearlaplap, Langor and Tutu. The largest village is Ine, Arno.

People of Arno are well known for their productivity in making copra (the dried out meat of coconuts, from which coconut oil is extracted). Arno women are renowned for their production of the Kili Bag, a popular handwoven handbag/purse, named after another island in the Marshall Islands (to which the people of Bikini were eventually relocated as a result of the US nuclear tests that were conducted on their home atoll). Arno supposedly had a traditional "love school".

Marshall

Marshall may refer to:

Island

An island /ˈaɪlənd/ or isle /ˈaɪl/ is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be called an eyot or ait, or a holm. A grouping of geographically or geologically related islands is called an archipelago, e.g. the Philippines.

An island may be described as such despite the presence of an artificial land bridge, for example Singapore and its causeway, or the various Dutch delta islands, such as IJsselmonde. Some places may even retain "island" in their names for historical reasons after being connected to a larger landmass by a wide land bridge, such as Coney Island or Coronado Island. Conversely, when a piece of land is separated from the mainland by a man-made canal, for example the Peloponnese by the Corinth Canal, it is generally not considered an island.

There are two main types of islands: continental islands and oceanic islands. There are also artificial islands.