 Marshall Islands : Profile
The Republic of the Marshall Islands comprises over a thousand small low islands, forming two chains, the eastern Ratak (towards dawn) and the western Ralik (towards sunset). Their total land surface is only 70 square miles yet they are scattered over half a million square miles of ocean. Used as a site for nuclear tests by the USA, radiation effects are still a problem in some islands. It was the nuclear tests which put the Marshalls on the world map in the early 1950s as they were little known before and are not much better known now. In addition to the legacy of hydrogen bomb testing at Bikini Atoll during the 1950s, Kwajalein continues to be the scene of missile defense testing, with missiles fired from California being shot down over the atoll's massive lagoon. The majority of yachts which call at the Marshalls are on their way from Hawaii to the rest of Micronesia, whose islands have escaped the nuclear pollution, which continues to blight some Marshall Islands to this day. Majuro Atoll is the political and economic centre. It comprises 57 islets, the larger ones joined together by a road, around an oval lagoon. The most developed of the Marshalls, the atoll's main islands Delap, Uliga and Darrit, form the DUD municipality.
The climate is tropical and temperatures show little variation throughout the year. December to April is the NE trade wind season and even in the remaining months prevailing winds tend to be easterly. Occasionally the easterly flow is interrupted by strong SW winds. Tropical storms are very rare in Majuro but not unheard of, and one at the turn of the nineteenth century killed almost everyone on Majuro. Recently, in an El Niņo year, one passed close to the south of Majuro.
Ebeye Island (Kwajalein Atoll)
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, Majuro
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, Outer Islands
*Indicates a port of entry.
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