Spratly Island ( or , ; ; ), also known as Storm Island, is the fourth largest of the naturally occurring

Spratly Islands The Spratly Islands (; zh, s=南沙群岛, t=南沙群島, p=Nánshā Qúndǎo; ; ) are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. Composed of islands, islets, cays, and more than 100 reefs, sometimes grouped in submerged old atoll ...

in the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...

with an area of , and the largest of the Vietnamese-administered Spratly islands. In 2016 the Vietnamese embarked on a land reclamation program at ten locations in the Spratly Islands. At Spratly Island 37 acres have been reclaimed, which has allowed for the addition of a harbourSpratly Island
Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative and the doubling of the length of the island's runway to a length of about . It is also claimed by China (PRC) and Taiwan (ROC).

Location

Spratly island lies west of the SW of Dangerous Ground in the western half of the

. It is neighboured by Ladd Reef to the west, the London Reefs to the east, and others.

History in the 20th century

In April 1930,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

sent the dispatch boat ''(

aviso An ''aviso'' was originally a kind of dispatch boat or "advice boat", carrying orders before the development of effective remote communication. The term, derived from the Portuguese and Spanish word for "advice", "notice" or "warning", an ...

)'', ''la Malicieuse'', to the archipelago and raised the

flag of France The national flag of France () is a Tricolour (flag), tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured blue (Flag terminology#Description of standard flag parts and terms, hoist side), white, and red. The design was adopted after the French Rev ...

on a high mound on Spratly Island, also known as ''île de la Tempête''. According to an official announcement by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, France occupied Spratly Island on April 13, 1930. On 21 December 1933, the Governor of

Cochinchina Cochinchina or Cochin-China (, ; ; ; ; ) is a historical exonym and endonym, exonym for part of Vietnam, depending on the contexts, usually for Southern Vietnam. Sometimes it referred to the whole of Vietnam, but it was commonly used to refer t ...

, Jean-Félix Krautheimer, signed Decree No. 4702-CP merging Spratly Island, Amboyna Cay, Itu Aba Island, Northeast Cay, Southwest Cay, Loaita Island, Thitu Island and other dependent islands with Ba Ria province (present-day Vietnam's

Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu province Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu (abbreviated BRVT) was formerly a province of Vietnam. It was located on the coast of the country's Southeast region. It bordered Đồng Nai to the north, Bình Thuận to the northeast and Ho Chi Minh City metropolit ...

). In April 1939 Japan occupied the island provoking protests from the French. The Japanese also laid claim to 1000 square miles of the South China sea between 7 and 12 degrees north and 111 to 112 degrees east. During the occupation of the island by the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

at the time of the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

, the island was known by the Japanese as . After World War II, the Republic of China Navy sent a fleet of vessels to the

to take over the occupation of islands from Japan. In 1946, the Republic of China government announced the sovereignty of this island, set a milestone, and named it "Nanwei Island". (Nanwei is the name of the Chairman of Guangdong Province in China in 1946 – Chinese: 南威島). During the early 1960s, the Republic of Vietnam Navy stopped off at the island several times. In 1963, three ships (HQ-404 ''Huong Giang'', HQ-01 ''Chi Lang'' and HQ-09 ''Ki Hoa'') visited and systematically rebuilt steles on a number of islands in the archipelago. On May 19, 1963, they built one on Spratly Island. However, the war on the mainland led to the absence of Vietnamese troops on the island until 1974 when South Vietnam set up a permanent garrison there after the Crescent Group of the

Paracel Islands The Paracel Islands, also known as the Xisha Islands () and the Hoàng Sa Archipelago (), are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea and currently controlled by the People's Republic of China. The word ''paracel'' is of Portuguese origi ...

was lost to China. On April 29, 1975, the

Vietnam People's Army Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

evicted South Vietnam's troops and occupied the island.

Administration

Under the South Vietnamese regime, Spratly Island was placed under the administration of Khánh Hòa province. In 2007, the Vietnamese government upgraded the island's status to a

commune-level town Commune-level town (), a type of third tier subdivision of Vietnam is divided into 11,162 units along with ward and commune have equal status. By virtue of Decree No. 42/2009/ND-CP, township are officially classified into Class-2, Class-3, Clas ...

which is in charge of administering all nearby Vietnamese-controlled features such as Amboyna Cay and Barque Canada Reef. On the island lies Trường Sa District's administrative center.

Geography

Spratly Island is shaped like an

isosceles triangle In geometry, an isosceles triangle () is a triangle that has two Edge (geometry), sides of equal length and two angles of equal measure. Sometimes it is specified as having ''exactly'' two sides of equal length, and sometimes as having ''at le ...

. According to a document published by the Political Department of Vietnam's Navy Command, the island is in length, up to in width and has an area of while several foreign documents often use a slightly smaller number of . It is 3.4 to 5 metres above sea level during low tide. The island has a variety of vegetation with a source of

brackish water Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuary ...

which can be utilized for bathing, washing and watering plants. The

fringing reef A fringing reef is one of the three main types of coral reef. It is distinguished from the other main types, barrier reefs and atolls, in that it has either an entirely shallow backreef zone (lagoon) or none at all. If a fringing reef grows direc ...

s that lie at all three corners are up to wide and uncovered at low tide.

Climate

Spratly Island has a

tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate subtype that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ' ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Am''). With the typical meteorological characteristics of an archipelago, the Spratly Islands have a cool summer and a warm winter. The

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The t ...

, spanning from February to May, is characterized by a higher temperature from 4:30 AM to 19:00 PM. May–January is the time of the

rainy season The rainy season is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Rainy Season may also refer to: * ''Rainy Season'' (short story), a 1989 short horror story by Stephen King * "Rainy Season", a 2018 song by Monni * '' ...

, when temperatures are lower during daytime, but thunderstorms are more likely to occur.

Ecology

The island's plants are mostly '' Barringtonia asiatica'', '' Ipomoea pes-caprae'', '' Heliotropium foertherianum'', and some kinds of bush and

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

which grow poorly due to the harsh climate. Spratly Island is home to some birds and has

guano Guano (Spanish from ) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a le ...

deposits. Islanders try to cultivate

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

papaya The papaya (, ), papaw, () or pawpaw () is the plant species ''Carica papaya'', one of the 21 accepted species in the genus '' Carica'' of the family Caricaceae, and also the name of its fruit. It was first domesticated in Mesoamerica, within ...

chili pepper Chili peppers, also spelled chile or chilli ( ), are varieties of fruit#Berries, berry-fruit plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for their pungency. They are used as a spice to ...

and a variety of vegetables and herbs. There are also hundreds of dogs and much poultry such as chickens, ducks and geese.

Facilities

Trường Sa Airport

The original runway was built in 1976–77. From 2004, the configurations included a landing strip that could accommodate small fixed-wing propeller aircraft (

PZL M28 Skytruck The PZL M28 Skytruck is a family of Polish light utility aircraft with STOL capability produced by PZL Mielec for military and civilian use. They are mainly used in transport, patrol and maritime reconnaissance roles. The maritime patrol and ...

de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada in the mid-1960s and still in production today. Built by De Havilland Canada from 1965 to 1988, Viking ...

). Aircraft were parked on a small tarmac area next to the runway which runs the entire length of the island, with both ends ending on beachfront. Homes surround the two sides of the runway and a small two-story building with a control tower on the roof is located by the apron. Since 2016, photos and reports were published showing extensive land-reclamation and construction work at Spratly Island, with new harbours and extension of the runway to at least . The island also has a helicopter pad.

Other facilities

Built in 1977, the meteorological station on Spratly Island has station index number 48920 as assigned by the

World Meteorological Organization The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for promoting international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology an ...

. Vietnam Military Telecommunications Corp., known commonly as

Viettel The Military Industry and Telecoms Group (), Trade name, trading as Viettel or Viettel Group (), is a Vietnamese State-owned enterprise, state-owned multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications, technology and manufacturing C ...

, established mobile coverage in the Spratlys Island in 2007 to assert sovereignty and allow soldiers to speak with their families back home. Energy is provided by

solar panel A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

s and

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

s. Additional facilities included a small jetty with two piers, a clinic, a cultural house, a radio tower and a Buddhist pagoda. A primary school has been in operation since April 2013. There is a 5.5 m-high

obelisk An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...

at the southern tip.

References

External links

Maritime Transparency Initiative Island Tracker
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spratly Island (Proper) Islands of the Spratly Islands World War II occupied territories Disputed islands of Asia