Tuvalu at the Pacific Games similarly rotated on a four-year basis in the intervening years between the main games. A combined Gilbert and Ellice Islands team participated at the 1963, 1966, and 1971 South Pacific Games. An athlete from Tuvalu (then Ellice Islands), namely Nelu Arenga, is at least documented for 1971. Athletes from Tuvalu attended the 2003 South Pacific Games for the first time. Logona Esau was the first athlete from Tuvalu to win a medal at an international competition, when he took bronze at the 2005 South Pacific Mini Games in Koror, Palau. Tuvalu competed at the 2007 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa.
Geology of the Pacific Ocean . The Pacific Ocean developed from the Panthalassa, a vast global ocean, following the breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea in the Mesozoic Era, gradually forming Gondwana and Laurasia, which in turn divided. There is no firm date for when the changeover occurred, as the replacement of the sea bed is a continuous process, though reconstruction maps often change the name from Panthalassic to Pacific around the time the Atlantic Ocean began to open. The Panthalassic Ocean first opened around 750 million years ago at the breakup of Rodinia, but the oldest Pacific Ocean floor is only around 180 Ma old.