Lisianski Island
| Native name: Papa‘āpoho | |
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View of Lisianski from the air.
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 Lisianski Island
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| Geography | |
| Location | Pacific Ocean |
| Coordinates | 26°03′51″N 173°57′57″W / 26.064031°N 173.965802°WCoordinates: 26°03′51″N 173°57′57″W / 26.064031°N 173.965802°W |
| Archipelago | Northwestern Hawaiian Islands |
| Area | 384.425 acres (155.571 ha) |
| Length | 1.2 mi (1.9 km) |
| Width | 0.6 mi (1 km) |
| Coastline | 3.1 mi (5 km) |
| Administration | |
| State | Hawaii |
Lisianski Island (Hawaiian: Papa‘āpoho) is one of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, with a land area of 384.425 acres (155.571 ha) and a maximum elevation of 40 feet (12 m) above sea level. It is a low, flat sand and coral island about 905 nautical miles (1,676 km) northwest of Honolulu. The island is surrounded by reefs and shoals, including the extensive Neva Shoals. Access to the island is limited by helicopter or by boat to a narrow sandy inlet on the southeastern side of the island.
The island is made of limestone that caps the submerged summit of an extinct shield volcano that was active about 20 million years ago. Lisianski Island is undergoing the slow process of erosion, and features a depression between two tall sand dunes, that is thought to once have been a lagoon like the one on Laysan, its nearest neighbor. For this reason, the island's selected Hawaiian name, Papa‘āpoho, means "island with a depression". Over three-quarters of the Bonin petrels that nest in Hawaii nest here. Recent discovery of subfossils on the island indicate that Laysan duck populations occurred on the island, possibly as a result of the former lagoon.
The Island is named after Yuri Feodorovich Lisyansky, an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy. Lisianski was the commanding officer of the Russian-American Company's merchant sloop Neva, which was on an exploration mission as part of the first Russian circumnavigation of the world when she ran aground on the island in 1805. Lisianski reported the island to be of little interest, except insofar as its surrounding reefs and shoals posed a threat to passing vessels.
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Wikipedia