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
Lhaviyani Atoll Lhaviyani Atoll Lhaviyani Atoll (also known as Faadhippolhu Atoll) is an administrative division of the Maldives. Its abbreviation is "Lh". Lhaviyani Atoll is located between 5° 15" and 5° 35" N and between 73° 20" and 74° 40" E. The capital of the atoll is Naifaru. There are a total of 54 islands in the atoll of which only 5 are inhabited: namely Naifaru, Hinnavaru, Kurendhoo and Olhuvelifushi. The island of Maafilaafushi was resettled in the 1980s in order to relieve the lack of land availability in Malé. The island once served as the capital of the separatist Kingdom of