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
Kaafu Atoll do not form part of the Kaafu Atoll administrative division and are a separate administrative division. Kaafu is a code letter of the Thaana alphabet used in the Maldivian language, Dhivehi, assigned to one of the administrative divisions of the Maldives which is officially and traditionally known by the name Malé Atoll. The Thaana alphabet code names are not the names of the natural or geographical atolls of the Maldives which make up these divisions. These administrative divisions may consist of part of, a single or several natural atolls. Malé Atoll is the name of two natural atolls which form