Vostok Island

   

Vostok Island, also known as Staver Island is an unhabited coral island in the central Pacific Ocean, part of the Line Islands belonging to Kiribati. It is located at 10º 05' S, 152º 54' W.

First sighted in 1820 by the Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who named the island for his ship. Only 1.5 kilometers in length and approximately triangular in shape, it rises to a height of about 5 meters above sea level, with a dense thicket of Pisonia trees covering the central portion of the island. Vostok was claimed under the Guano Act of 1856, but was never mined for phosphate.

The island has also been known as Reaper, Stavers, and Anne.


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