The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the north-western Pacific Ocean, between the 12th and 21st parallels north and along the 145th meridian east. They lie south-southeast of Japan, west-southwest of Hawaii, north of New Guinea, and east of the Philippines, demarcating the Philippine Sea's eastern limit. They are found in the northern part of the western Oceanic sub-region of Micronesia, and are politically divided into two jurisdictions of the United States: the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and, at the southern end of the chain, the territory of Guam. The islands were named after the influential Spanish queen Mariana of Austria following their colonization in the 17th century.
The indigenous inhabitants are the Chamorro people. Archaeologists in 2013 reported findings which indicated that the people who first settled the Marianas arrived there after making what may have been at the time the longest uninterrupted ocean voyage in human history. They further reported findings which suggested that Tinian is likely to have been the first island in Oceania to have been settled by humans.
Spanish expeditions, beginning with one by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in the early 16th century, were the first Europeans to arrive; eventually, Spain annexed and colonized the archipelago, establishing their capital on the largest island, Guam. The Marianas were the first islands Magellan encountered after traversing the Pacific from the southern tip of South America. The fruits found there saved the survivors from scurvy, which had already killed dozens of crewmembers.<!-- unsure whether to split word (crew members) -->
Geography
upright=1.8|right|thumb|Geology of the west Pacific in the area of the Mariana Islands. The Mariana Islands are at map-right, east of the Philippine Sea and just west of the [[Mariana Trench in the ocean floor.]]The Mariana Islands are the southern part of a submerged mountain range that extends from Guam to near Japan. Geographically, the Marianas are part of a larger region called Micronesia, situated between 13° and 21°N latitude and 144° and 146°E longitude.
The Mariana Islands have a total land area of .
They are composed of two administrative units:
- Guam, a United States territory
- the Northern Mariana Islands (including the islands of Saipan, Tinian and Rota), which make up a Commonwealth of the United States.
The island chain geographically consists of two subgroups, a northern group of ten volcanic main islands, all are currently uninhabited; and a southern group of five coralline limestone islands (Rota, Guam, Aguijan, Tinian and Saipan), all of which are inhabited except for Aguijan. In the northern volcanic group a maximum elevation of about is reached; there are craters showing signs of activity, and earthquakes are not uncommon. Coral reefs fringe the coasts of the southern isles, which are of slight elevation.
The lowest point on the Earth's crust, the Mariana Trench, is near the islands and is named after them.
The majority of islands in the Marianas still retain their indigenous names ending in the letters -an; for example, Guahan (the indigenous name of Guam), Agrigan, Agrihan, Aguihan/Aguigan, Pagan, Sarigan, Saipan, and Tinian.
Geology
The islands are part of a geologic structure known as the Izu–Bonin–Mariana Arc system. The island chain arose as a result of the western edge of the Pacific Plate moving westward and plunging downward below the Mariana plate, a region which is the most volcanically active convergent plate boundary on Earth. This subduction region, just east of the island chain, forms the noted Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Earth's oceans and lowest part of the surface of the Earth's crust. In this region, according to geologic theory, water trapped in the extensive faulting of the Pacific Plate as serpentinite, is heated by the higher temperatures of depth during its subduction, the pressure from the expanding steam results in the hydrothermal activity in the area and the volcanic activity which formed the Mariana Islands.