Postage stamps and postal history of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Tuvalu. The Gilbert Islands issued stamps under that name before attaining independence on 12 July 1979 as the Republic of Kiribati. The first stamps of Kiribati were a pair issued on 19 November 1979 to mark the independence of the country. The Tuvalu Philatelic Bureau was established on 1 January 1976, which was the day the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony was dissolved and Tuvalu established as a separate British dependency. The first stamp issue was a set of provisional overprinted definitive stamps and a commemorative set of three stamps. The first postage stamp cancellation devices were put into use
Geology of the Pacific Ocean existed. In a remote region of the central Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern section of the Gilbert Islands, a major swarm of intraplate earthquakes occurred between December 1981 and March 1983, with no prior seismicity having been reported in this region previously. Another swarm was detected on the Queen Charlotte Islands fracture zone in August–September 1967. The Pacific Ocean contains several long seamount chains, formed by hotspot volcanism. These include the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain, the Tasmantid Seamount Chain, the Lord Howe Seamount Chain and the Louisville Ridge. Geology of the Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean evolved in the Mesozoic from