Micronesian round - up Historic Preservation in the Marshall Islands : 2003 - 2004 Research

INTRODUCTION Located in the central Pacific between 4° and 14°north latitude and 160° and 173° east longitude, the Marshall Islands consist of two nearly parallel groups (the Ratak or Sunrise and the Ralik or Sunset Chains) of twenty-nine atolls and five table reefs, totalling 181 km2 of land and 10,455 km2 of lagoon area. Together these two chains extend about 1,130 km north to south and approximately 1,290 km east to west. Geological and ecological reconstructions suggest that the atolls are not likely to have formed until about 3,000 years ago, when enough sediments had accumulated and reef flats had developed sufficiently for relatively stable islets to form (Dye 1987). However, it may have taken another 1,000 years for some of these islets to develop into viable places for human settlement.