Ant Atoll is a small

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gr ...

lying off the west coast of

Pohnpei Pohnpei "upon (''pohn'') a stone altar (''pei'')" (formerly known as Ponape or Ascension, Proto-Chuukic-Pohnpeic: ''*Fawo ni pei)'' is an island of the Senyavin Islands which are part of the larger Caroline Islands group. It belongs to Pohnpei ...

in the

Federated States of Micronesia The Federated States of Micronesia (; abbreviated FSM) is an island country in Oceania. It consists of four states from west to east, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosraethat are spread across the western Pacific. Together, the states comprise a ...

. Along with the nearby

Pakin Atoll Pakin Atoll is a small atoll lying off the northwest coast of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia. Along with the nearby Ant Atoll these islands constitute the Senyavin group of islands. Pakin has a population of around 90-100 people, a ...

, these islands constitute the Senyavin group of islands. Ant's first European visitor was Álvaro de Saavedra on 14 September 1529 shortly before his death, in his second attempt to return from

Tidore Tidore ( id, Kota Tidore Kepulauan, lit. "City of Tidore Islands") is a city, island, and archipelago in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia, west of the larger island of Halmahera. Part of North Maluku Province, the city includes the island ...

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...

. It was later visited by

Pedro Fernandez de Quiros Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for ''Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning ...

, commanding the Spanish ship ''San Jeronimo'' on 23 December 1595. Fernandez de Quirós had assumed the command of the Spanish expedition of Alvaro de Mendaña after his death Coello, Francisco "Conflicto hispano-alemán" ''Boletín de Sociedad Geográfica de Madrid'', t.XIX. 2º semestre 1885, Madrid, p.296 Etienne DeCroissant briefly sailed by the islands on her exploration trip to the region. Ant is a popular site with tourists for diving and snorkelling, and is the site of several colonies of seabirds, notably

black noddy The black noddy or white-capped noddy (''Anous minutus'') is a seabird from the family Laridae. It is a medium-sized species of tern with black plumage and a white cap. It closely resembles the lesser noddy (''Anous tenuirostris'') with which it w ...

s. There is a small settlement on the atoll that is inhabited part-time. There is evidence of an ancient civilization on the island, which might have been built by the same people who built the nearby

Nan Madol Nan Madol is an archaeological site adjacent to the eastern shore of the island of Pohnpei, now part of the Madolenihmw district of Pohnpei state in the Federated States of Micronesia in the western Pacific Ocean. Nan Madol was the capital of t ...

References

{{coord, 6.776, 157.961, dim:50000_region:FM, display=title Atolls of the Federated States of Micronesia Islands of Pohnpei Uninhabited islands of the Federated States of Micronesia

See also

References