Gilbert and Ellice Islands the latitude of 5° to 10° south and longitude of 176° to 180°, west of the International Date Line. The Ellice Islands are midway between Hawaii and Australia. The Ellice Islands are recognised as part of the Polynesia subregion of Oceania. In 1606 Pedro Fernandes de Queirós sighted Butaritari and Makin, which he named the Buen Viaje (‘good trip’ in Spanish) Islands. The Gilbert Islands were named in 1820 by a Russian Admiral, Baron Johann von Krusenstern, after a British captain, Thomas Gilbert, who encountered the archipelago in 1788 while exploring an Outer Passage route from Port Jackson to Canton.
1978 Pacific typhoon season 1978 Pacific typhoon season The 1978 Pacific typhoon season was a very active season that lasted more than a year. It has no official bounds; it ran year-round in 1978, but most tropical cyclones tend to form in the northwestern Pacific Ocean between June and December. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. The scope of this article is limited to the Pacific Ocean, north of the equator and west of the international date line. Storms that form east of the date line and north of the equator