Roncador Reef is a
reef
A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...
in
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...
, south of
Ontong Java Atoll
Ontong Java Atoll or Luangiua, (formerly ''Lord Howe Atoll'', not to be confused with Lord Howe Island) is one of the largest atolls on earth.
Geographically it belongs to a scattered group of three atolls which includes nearby Nukumanu Atol ...
and north of
Santa Isabel Island
Santa Isabel Island (also known as Isabel, Ysabel and Mahaga) is the longest in Solomon Islands, the third largest in terms of surface area, and the largest in the group of islands in Isabel Province.
Location and geographic data
Choiseul lies t ...
.
This submerged reef forms a small geographic group together with
Nukumanu
The Nukumanu Islands, formerly the Tasman Islands, is an atoll of Papua New Guinea, located in the south-western Pacific Ocean, 4 degrees south of the Equator.
Description
Comprising a ring of more than twenty islets on a reef surrounding a ...
and Ontong Java, the two nearest atolls located further north.
History
This reef was first sighted by Europeans at the time of the Spanish expedition of
Álvaro de Mendaña and
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (1532–1592) was a Spanish explorer, author, historian, mathematician, and astronomer. His birthplace is not certain and may have been Pontevedra, in Galicia, where his paternal family originated, or Alcalá de Henare ...
on 1 February 1558. It was charted as ''Bajos de la Candelaria'' (shoals of Our Lady of
Candlemas in Spanish).
Its sighting was also reported by Spanish naval officer
Francisco Mourelle de la Rúa on 22 January 1781 on board of frigate ''La Princesa''. He charted this reef as ''Peregrino Roncador'' (Snoring Pilgrim in Spanish).
[Landin Carrasco, Amancio ''Mourelle de la Rúa, explorador del Pacífico'' Madrid, 1971, p.79.]
References
Atolls of the Solomon Islands
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