Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
50 free Marshall Islands trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Marshall Islands are 29 coral atolls and five islands scattered across 1.9 million square kilometres of the central Pacific, with barely 180 square kilometres of land between them: more than 98 percent of the country is lagoon. This quiz covers the geography that makes the place unique (the two parallel chains named for sunrise and sunset, Kwajalein's enormous lagoon, an average elevation of two metres) and the seafaring culture that settled it, from breadfruit-wood outriggers to the famous stick charts that mapped ocean swells. History runs from the Spanish sightings of 1526 through the British captain who lent his name, German copra traders and the 1885 protectorate, the Japanese mandate, the American invasion of 1944 and the 67 nuclear tests that followed, including Castle Bravo at Bikini and the world's first hydrogen bomb at Enewetak. Then it reaches the present: independence in 1979, the Compact of Free Association, the Nitijela and its 33 senators, the first female president, the flag with the most-pointed star of any nation, the world's largest shark sanctuary and the ship registry that is second only to Panama's. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the Marshall Islands, Bikini Atoll, Castle Bravo, Kwajalein, Majuro and the flag, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Marshall Islands lie in which ocean?
The Pacific
The Marshall Islands lie in the central Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and Australia, just north of the equator.
Q 02What is the capital and largest city of the Marshall Islands?
Majuro
Majuro is both the capital and the largest city; roughly half of all Marshallese live on the atoll, mostly along the Delap-Uliga-Djarrit strip.
Q 03How many coral atolls make up the Marshall Islands?
29
The country consists of 29 coral atolls plus five isolated islands, together holding roughly 1,200 islets, though the total land area is only about 180 square kilometres.
Q 04What are the names of the country's two island chains?
Ratak and Ralik
Ratak means 'sunrise' and Ralik means 'sunset'.
Q 05Roughly what percentage of Marshall Islands territory is lagoon water?
98%
About 98% of the Marshall Islands' territory is lagoon water: roughly 11,700 square kilometres of lagoon surround only about 181 square kilometres of dry land.
Q 06Which of these is NOT one of the four countries built entirely on atolls?
Fiji
Fiji has volcanic high islands, unlike the four atoll nations.
Q 07What is the average elevation of the entire country above sea level?
About 2 metres
The country's average elevation is about 2 metres above sea level; even its highest natural point, on Likiep Atoll, stands only around 10 metres up.
Q 08Which is the largest atoll in the Marshall Islands, with a lagoon of about 1,700 square km?
Kwajalein
It hosts the US Army's Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site.
Q 09The Marshall Islands are named after a sea captain of which nationality?
British
The islands are named after John Marshall, a British sea captain who sailed through in 1788 on the Scarborough after delivering convicts to New South Wales.
Q 10Which European power was the first to sight the islands, in 1526?
Spain
Spain's Alonso de Salazar sighted the islands in August 1526, reaching Bokak Atoll, but strong currents and deep water stopped his crew from landing.
Q 11Spanish sailors nicknamed the islands 'Los Pintados' because the inhabitants were what?
Tattooed
'Los Pintados' means 'the Painted Ones': Alvaro de Saavedra's Spanish crew found the islanders heavily tattooed when they touched at the atolls while trying to sail home from the Moluccas.
Q 12Marshallese navigators built stick charts to map what?
Ocean swell patterns
Marshallese stick charts mapped ocean swell patterns, showing with lashed palm ribs and shells how swells bend and cross around atolls; navigators memorised them and left them ashore.
Q 13Traditional Marshallese sailing canoes, called walaps, were built from the wood of which tree?
Breadfruit
Q 21What was the yield of the 1954 Castle Bravo test, the most powerful US nuclear explosion ever?
15 megatons
Castle Bravo, fired at Bikini on 1 March 1954, yielded 15 megatons, two and a half times the 6 megatons predicted, because lithium-7 in the fuel bred extra tritium.
Q 22Fallout from Castle Bravo contaminated the crew of which Japanese fishing boat?
Daigo Fukuryū Maru
The Daigo Fukuryū Maru (Lucky Dragon No. 5) was showered with Bravo's fallout some 150 km from Bikini; radio operator Aikichi Kuboyama died that September, and Rongelap and Utirik islanders were also dusted.
Q 23How many nuclear devices did the US detonate at Bikini Atoll between 1946 and 1958?
23
Walap hulls were carved from breadfruit wood, the islands' best large timber; coconut-fibre sennit lashed the planks and pandanus leaves were woven into the sails.
Q 14What is the Marshallese title for a paramount chief?
Iroijlaplap
Iroijlaplap is the title of a Marshallese paramount chief, ranking above the iroij and the alap lineage heads; several early presidents held the title.
Q 15Which empire annexed the Marshall Islands as a protectorate in 1885?
Germany
Germany declared a protectorate over the Marshall Islands in 1885, after its traders had dominated the islands' commerce through the 1870s and 1880s; Jaluit became the administrative centre.
Q 16Which product drove the islands' colonial economy in the 19th century?
Copra
Copra, dried coconut meat pressed for oil, drove the 19th-century trade; the Jaluit Gesellschaft shipped it from the atolls, and it stayed the islands' main cash crop into the 20th century.
Q 17Which country seized the islands in 1914 and later ran them as a League of Nations mandate?
Japan
Japan seized the islands in 1914 and governed them from 1920 under a League of Nations mandate; its civilian South Seas Government ran the territory from Koror in Palau.
Q 18The US Navy's strikes on four Marshallese atolls on 1 February 1942 were notable as what?
The first American air attacks on Japanese territory
The 1 February 1942 carrier raids by Enterprise and Yorktown on the Marshalls were the first American air attacks on Japanese territory in the war; the full invasion followed on 31 January 1944.
Q 19Between 1946 and 1958, how many nuclear tests did the United States conduct in the Marshall Islands?
67
The United States conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958, all at two northern atolls, beginning with Operation Crossroads in July 1946.
Q 20The world's first hydrogen bomb, codenamed 'Mike', was tested in 1952 at which atoll?
Enewetak
Ivy Mike was detonated on 1 November 1952 at Enewetak Atoll, vaporising the islet of Elugelab and leaving a crater nearly two kilometres wide; the atoll had hosted tests since 1948.
The United States detonated 23 nuclear devices at Bikini Atoll between 1946 and 1958, set off on the reef, on the sea surface, in the air and underwater; the two Operation Crossroads shots of July 1946 came first.
Q 24Four days after the first Bikini test in July 1946, Louis Réard named what after the atoll?
A swimsuit
Réard unveiled his two-piece swimsuit, the bikini, in Paris on 5 July 1946, four days after the Able shot, hoping its name would suggest the same explosive effect.
Q 25Bikini Atoll received which international designation in 2010?
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Bikini Atoll was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010 for its nuclear-test legacy, including the sunken fleet of Operation Crossroads in its lagoon and the Bravo crater.
Q 26What is the Runit Dome?
A concrete cap over radioactive waste
There are ongoing fears that the deteriorating structure could leak plutonium.
Q 27On what date did the United States recognise the Marshall Islands' constitution and government?
1 May 1979
The Marshall Islands' constitution took effect on 1 May 1979, the date the United States recognised the new government; the day is marked as Constitution Day.
Q 28What is the name of the agreement that governs the Marshall Islands' relationship with the United States?
Compact of Free Association
The Compact of Free Association, first in force in 1986 and since renewed, gives the United States defence responsibility and funding duties while letting Marshallese live and work in the US without visas.
Q 29What currency does the Marshall Islands use?
The US dollar
The Marshall Islands uses the US dollar as its only currency, a legacy of the postwar Trust Territory years; it has no central bank and issues only commemorative coins of its own.
Q 30What is the name of the Marshall Islands' legislature?
Nitijela
The Nitijela is the 33-seat legislature of the Marshall Islands, which elects the president from among its members; a council of traditional chiefs advises it.