Japanese air attacks on the Mariana Islands 27 in preparation for operations against Japan itself. The USAAF bases in the Mariana Islands were within range of a number of Japanese air bases in the Pacific. These included Wake Island to the east, Truk and the Gilbert and Marshall Islands to the southeast, Woleai to the south and Yap to the southwest. To the north the Japanese had air bases in the Nampo Shoto chain of islands and Bonin Islands, which included three airstrips on Iwo Jima. Several of the minor islands in the Mariana chain also remained in Japanese hands, and there were airfields on Rota and
Geography of the Comoros The islands have a total land area of 2,236 square kilometers (including Mayotte), and claim territorial waters of 320 square kilometers. Mount Karthala (2316 m) on Grande Comore is an active volcano. From April 17 to 19, 2005, the volcano began spewing ash and gas, forcing as many as 10,000 people to flee. Comoros is located within the Somali plate. Geographic coordinates: Grande Comore is the largest island, sixty-seven kilometers long and twenty-seven kilometers wide, with a total area of 1,146 square kilometers. The most recently formed of the four islands in the archipelago, it is also of volcanic origin.