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Concept
Kwajalein Atoll
Summary
Kwajalein Atoll (ˈkwɑːdʒəlɪn; Marshallese: Kuwajleen kwiwajleyen) is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island, which its majority English-speaking residents (about 1,000 mostly U.S. civilian personnel) often use the shortened name, Kwaj kwɑːdʒ. The total land area of the atoll amounts to just over . It lies in the Ralik Chain, southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii.
The US Navy has hosted a naval base on Kwajalein Island since World War II. It was the final resting place of the German cruiser Prinz Eugen after it survived the Operation Crossroads nuclear test in 1946. In the late 1950s, the US Army took over the base as part of their Nike Zeus anti-ballistic missile efforts, and since then the atoll has been widely used for missile tests of all sorts. Today it is part of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, with various radars, tracking cameras, missile launchers, and many support systems spread across many islands. One of the five ground stations used in controlling the operation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation system is located on Kwajalein.
The atoll is also used as a base for orbital rocket launches with the Pegasus-XL rocket, and previously had a base for SpaceX for their Falcon 1 rocket.
Kwajalein is the 14th largest coral atoll as measured by area of enclosed water. Comprising 97 islands and islets, it has a land area of (6.33 mi2) and surrounds one of the largest lagoons in the world, with an area of (839 mi2). The average height above sea level for all the islands is about .
The atoll was formed when volcanoes on the seabed from 165 to 76 mya built up enough lava that the land rose from beneath the sea. It cannot be determined how far above sea level the original land rose. Then coral started growing around the land/volcano, about 56 mya. Then the land subsided leaving the coral ring of the atoll. The water temperature averages degrees. Underwater visibility is typically on the ocean side of the atoll.
Official source
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