ABSTRACT
The Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia covers a vast area of the South Pacific and contains 73 atolls, the largest number of any archipelago in the world. The inhabitants are of Polynesian ancestry. The dominant surface current is the trade wind-driven South Equatorial Current, which forms part of a counterclockwise gyre that washes through the archipelago. The atolls of the Tuamotu Archipelago are clustered into geographic groups including the Palliser Islands, Central Tuamotu Islands, the South-Central Tuamotu Islands, the northern and northeastern Tuamotu Islands, the southeastern Tuamotu Islands, the Gambier Islands, and the Pitcairn Islands, each with distinct geologic history, physical oceanography, and atoll characteristics. Tides across most of the area are less than 70 cm, winds are generally easterly, and although the most common waves are associated with the trade winds, large waves can be from swell from the southwest or be associated with tropical depressions. Given the large area and diverse dynamics, atolls include a variety of types ranging from those with open rims that freely allow oceanic exchange to those that are completely closed to include lagoons that develop altered water chemistry. Intermediate conditions, semi-closed rims, are also represented where the rim completely encloses the lagoon, but tides or large storms are sufficient to flow over the rim and provide the lagoon with oceanic exchange. In addition, the atolls include rims with numerous islands, tectonically uplifted atolls with cliffs, and those whose rims are without islands and are completely submerged.
