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Amsterdam Island at the Edge of the Empty Sea
Where the Indian Ocean narrows to wind and basalt Far from the sea lanes most maps teach us to notice, Amsterdam Island rises alone from the southern Indian Ocean, a dark volcanic outpost between Africa, Australia, and Antarctica. It belongs administratively to the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, yet it feels less like a possession…
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Niʻihau and the Silence of Hawaii’s Forbidden Island
Beyond Kauaʻi, behind the curtain of distance From the western edge of the main Hawaiian chain, the island of Niʻihau lies in plain sight and almost entirely out of reach. It rises beyond the Kaulakahi Channel, about 27 kilometers southwest of Kauaʻi, a dry, wind-shaped landmass of roughly 180 square kilometers that appears, from a…
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Napuka Island at the Edge of the Empty Pacific
A ring of coral in the far eastern Tuamotus Seen on a chart, it hardly seems possible that so much solitude can be compressed into such a small shape: a low coral atoll in the northeastern Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia, far out in the open Pacific, where the ocean has room to gather its…
