Atoll expedition in 1897. The third expedition in 1898 was led by Alfred Edmund Finckh. On January 6, 2009, U.S. President George W. Bush announced the creation of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, covering several islands and atolls under U.S. jurisdiction. Atoll An atoll (, , , , or ), sometimes called a coral atoll, is a ring-shaped coral reef including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. The coral of the atoll often sits atop the rim of an extinct seamount or volcano which has
Haa Alif Atoll to visit each other's islands. Marriage alliances were common. Now Minicoy is a part of India and communication is highly restricted. As an administrative division, North Thiladhunmathi Atoll was created when the huge natural Thiladhunmathi Atoll was administratively divided into northern and southern divisions in 1958. Haa Alif Atoll Haa Alif Atoll is the code name based on the letters of the Maldivian alphabet commonly used to refer to the administrative division officially known as North Thiladhunmathi Atoll (Maldivian: "Thiladhunmathi Uthuruburi") in the Maldives. It is the northernmost of the 19 administrative divisions (known as "Atolls") of the country, and