46 Fun Facts About Micronesia

Which internet country code, popular with radio stations and podcasts, belongs to Micronesia?

.fm is the country code of the Federated States of Micronesia, but anyone in the world can register an address, so radio stations and streaming sites such as Last.fm have made it their own.

What is the capital of the Federated States of Micronesia?

Palikir, a purpose-built capital on the island of Pohnpei, replaced the old colonial town of Kolonia as the seat of the national government.

Challenger Deep, the deepest known point of the ocean, lies in the FSM's waters within which trench?

The Mariana Trench's southern end reaches into the FSM's ocean territory, so the deepest known seabed on Earth, almost 11 km down, belongs to a country with only 702 square kilometres of land.

The FSM's territory forms most of which larger archipelago?

The Carolines: about 500 coral islands scattered north of New Guinea and east of the Philippines, yet shared by just two countries, with the FSM holding all but the western end.

Roughly how much ocean lies within the FSM's exclusive economic zone?

About 3 million km²: the FSM's exclusive economic zone spans nearly 3 million square kilometres of the western Pacific, more than 4,000 times its land area.

Under which agreement with the United States did the FSM become independent in 1986?

The Compact of Free Association took effect on 3 November 1986, though the UN Security Council did not formally end its oversight of the islands until December 1990.

From 1947 the islands of the FSM were administered under which UN arrangement?

Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands: the UN placed it under American administration in 1947, and its districts later went separate ways, four of them joining to form the FSM in 1979.

Under its 1986 agreement with the FSM, the United States takes full responsibility for which of these?

Defence is wholly Washington's job, so the FSM keeps no military of its own, though its citizens may enlist in the US armed forces.

Sakau, the ceremonial drink pounded from pepper-plant roots on Pohnpei, is known across the Pacific by what name?

Kava is called sakau on Pohnpei, where makers mix the pounded root with the fibrous bark of a hibiscus tree before squeezing out the bitter, mildly psychoactive juice.

Who elects the president of the FSM?

Congress, from among the at-large senators, picks both the president and the vice-president; the winners give up their seats, which special elections refill, and there are no formal parties.

What do the white stars on the FSM flag represent?

The states of the federation: in an echo of the American flag, each star stands for one member state, and the four are set in a diamond at the centre of the field.

What is the official language of the FSM?

English is the official language, used in government and schools, but most islanders speak one of the indigenous Austronesian languages at home.

Which state's people make up almost half the FSM population?

Chuuk is the most populous state but also the poorest, and it has pushed to secede from the federation, though its independence referendum has been postponed again and again.

Nan Madol was the seat of which dynasty, which united Pohnpei until about 1628?

Saudeleur rulers governed all Pohnpei from Nan Madol for centuries, but their ever heavier demands for tribute bred the resentment that ended the dynasty around 1628.

What are the tropical cyclones that threaten the FSM between June and December called?

Typhoons are the same storms as hurricanes, named differently in the north-west Pacific; the FSM sits on the southern edge of the typhoon belt, so severe strikes are only occasional.

Nan Madol's megalithic walls are built from which volcanic rock?

Basalt: megalithic building in the dark volcanic stone began around AD 1180, yet little can be verified about how its builders raised walls of such massive blocks.

Mau Piailug, a master navigator from Yap's outer islands, guided which Hawaiian canoe to Tahiti in 1976 without instruments?

Hōkūle'a reached Tahiti on stars and swells alone; Mau, fearing his art would die out on Satawal, chose to teach it to Hawaiians and helped spark a revival of Pacific voyaging.

Yap, the FSM's westernmost state, lies far closer to which US territory than to its own national capital?

Guam even shares Yap's clock: the state keeps the same time as the US territory, an hour behind its own national capital far to the east.

Yapese crews quarried most of their giant stone money on which island group before sailing it home?

Palau lies some 300 miles from Yap; crews carved the calcite discs there and ferried them home across open sea, until an Irish-American trader began shipping them in bulk in the 1870s.

What happened to a rai stone that sank to the sea floor while being shipped to Yap?

It kept its full value: everyone agreed the stone must still lie on the sea floor, so its ownership went on changing hands like that of any other rai.

A rai stone's value depended on its size, craftsmanship and what else?

Its history: a stone brought by a famous navigator, or one whose transport cost lives, was worth more than a larger but uneventful one.

Which Nobel-winning economist likened Yap's immovable stone money to the gold in a central bank's vault?

Milton Friedman argued in 'The Island of Stone Money' (1991) that Yap's system was no odder than gold that changes owners while lying untouched in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

What was Truk Lagoon's role in World War II?

Japan's main Pacific naval base was bombed in 1944 but never invaded: the Allies bypassed and blockaded it, leaving the garrison cut off and short of food until the surrender.

What was the name of the February 1944 US attack that sank dozens of Japanese ships in Truk Lagoon?

Operation Hailstone: on 17–18 February 1944 US carrier aircraft sank more than 40 ships, mostly merchantmen and auxiliaries, and destroyed some 250 aircraft in the lagoon.

Whose 1971 television documentary turned Truk Lagoon into a world-famous wreck-diving destination?

Jacques Cousteau explored the lagoon with his team in 1969; his film of its ghostly, almost intact wrecks drew divers from around the world to what is now called the Ghost Fleet.

Which colonial power sold most of Micronesia's islands to Germany in 1899?

Spain had just lost the Philippines in the Spanish–American War and could no longer defend its remaining Pacific islands, so it sold them for 25 million pesetas.

Who was asked in 1885 to settle a dispute between two European powers over the islands of today's FSM?

Pope Leo XIII was proposed as arbitrator by Bismarck; his ruling confirmed one power's sovereignty while granting the other freedom to trade and the right to a coaling station on Yap.

Japan governed Micronesia's islands between the world wars under a mandate from which body?

The League of Nations confirmed in 1920 what Japan had seized from Germany in 1914; by the late 1920s Tokyo was refusing the League's requests to visit, and it went on to build bases across the islands.

The people of Kapingamarangi and Nukuoro, two remote atolls of Pohnpei State, belong to which cultural group?

Polynesian: the two atolls are 'outliers', thought to have been settled by voyagers who sailed back west out of Polynesia long after it was first peopled.

The atoll of Pingelap is known for the unusual prevalence of which condition?

Total colour blindness became common after a storm around 1775 left only about twenty survivors, one of them a carrier of the gene; Oliver Sacks wrote 'The Island of the Colorblind' about the atoll.

Mount Nahnalaud on Pohnpei is remarkable for what?

Being one of the rainiest places on Earth: though under 800 m high, Nahnalaud's cloud-forest summit averages more than seven metres of rain a year.

Which sport, hugely popular in Japan, is widely played across the FSM?

Baseball is played across the islands and at the Micronesian Games, which also award medals for the 'Micronesian all-around': racing up coconut trees, husking coconuts and throwing spears.

The 19th-century trader David O'Keefe shipped stone money to Yap in exchange for which island product?

Copra, dried coconut flesh, was his price: the Yapese harvested coconuts for him, though the stones he shipped so easily were valued less than those won by canoe.

The FSM's main source of government revenue is what?

Financial assistance from the US pays for most of the budget, with $1.3 billion pledged for 1986–2001 alone, while remoteness and a lack of facilities hold back tourism.

In 2022 the FSM severed diplomatic relations with which country?

Russia: on 25 February 2022, the day after the invasion of Ukraine began, the FSM announced it was breaking off diplomatic relations with Moscow.

Which Pacific region, a neighbour of Micronesia, has a Greek name meaning 'black islands'?

Melanesia joins the Greek for 'black' and 'island', a 19th-century label that referred to the dark skin of its peoples; Micronesia, coined the same way, means 'small islands'.

Which of these is one of the four main archipelagos of the Micronesia region?

The Gilbert Islands are the region's south-eastern chain; they became independent in 1979 as Kiribati, a name that is simply 'Gilberts' as spelled in the local language.

Which French explorer is usually credited with coining the term 'Micronesia' in 1832?

Jules Dumont d'Urville: his 1832 scheme dividing the Pacific into Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia popularised the name, though Louis Domeny de Rienzi had used 'Micronesia' a year earlier.

Which explorer's expedition made the first European contact with Micronesia in 1521?

Ferdinand Magellan reached the islands on the first voyage around the world, though he never finished it himself: he was killed in the Philippines a few weeks later.

Which Micronesian atoll was emptied of its people in 1946 so the United States could test nuclear weapons there?

Bikini's 167 islanders were moved away before the tests began, and within days a French designer had borrowed the atoll's name for his new two-piece swimsuit.

Which regional body did the FSM announce it would quit in 2021 before the Suva Agreement kept it in?

Pacific Islands Forum: the FSM and its Micronesian neighbours gave notice in February 2021 after losing the vote on the secretary-general post; the June 2022 Suva Agreement brought them back.

The FSM joined the United Nations in 1991 on the same day as which Pacific neighbour?

The Marshall Islands had been run by the same administration as the FSM since 1947, and the General Assembly admitted the two together on 17 September 1991.

Which church do a little over half of the FSM's people belong to?

Roman Catholic islanders are the majority overall, but not everywhere: Pohnpei is evenly split, and on Kosrae about 95 percent are Protestants, heirs of Congregationalist missions.

Nan Madol was placed on which UNESCO list on the very day in 2016 that it became a World Heritage Site?

World Heritage in Danger: natural forces were already wearing away the stonework of the FSM's only listed site, so UNESCO flagged it as threatened from the start.

In Pohnpeian legend, who built Nan Madol?

Twin sorcerers: the brothers Olisihpa and Olosohpa are said to have raised the massive stones with magic, helped by a flying dragon, before founding the ruling dynasty.

Navigators in the atolls east of the FSM once mapped ocean swells and islands with charts made of what?

Sticks and shells: ribs of coconut frond tied in a lattice showed how islands bend the swells, with shells for the islands; a navigator memorised the chart ashore and never consulted it at sea.