Clipperton Island: The Only Coral Island in the Eastern Pacific
A stereotype of the Pacific Ocean is the South Pacific coral
atoll, decked out in palm trees and filled with crystalline
aqua-blue lagoons teeming with exotic marine life. The region of
atolls and islands, however, is largely confined to the centre
and the west of the ocean. With the exception of Hawaii, the
Aleutians and a few other specks of land (e.g., Easter Island;
the Galapagos; Pitcairn), vast regions of the north and east
Pacific are vast and empty. In the entire east Pacific, there is
just one coral atoll, sitting completely alone 965 km off the
southern Mexican coast: France’s Clipperton Island.  View Larger
Map  Clipperton is a 9 km2 atoll with an island rim 12 km in
circumference and between 45 and 400 metres wide (averaging
about 150 metres wide). Other than a volcanic rock outcrop at
the southeast corner rising 29 metres out of the sand (the
remnant of the original volcano around which the atoll formed),
the elevation of the island