Nikumaroro · The island and the tide

01 / The island and the tide

The island before settlement.

Native forest, old coconut groves and a changing reef. Explore the evidence behind July 1937.

Drawing the island…

Island overview

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N
DAYLIGHT

Reef heights: 19 surveyed · the rest illustrative. One natural scale in every view.

JULY 2HULL PROXY → POINT AJULY 9 · GMT

Tide at Point A

Derived · Brandenburg relation

+0.39m

Above the survey’s reference point A.

Explore a water level

−0.60 m+1.60 m

Opening mean level

survey points under water

highest point still dry

Teal: under water · amber: dry or at the waterline. A point is under water only when the tide is higher than its surveyed height.

11 places / tap to read

Hypothesis · illustrative

The dashed amber lines mark a proposed landing strip. They are an annotation of the Earhart hypothesis.

Lagoon colours indicate stylised depth bands; the lagoon stays full at every tide.

What was measured?

TIGHAR reef survey 2010, published in Brandenburg, Time and Tide, TIGHAR Tracks 29, 2013, Figs 5 and 7; point positions read off the figure, about ±10 to 14 m across the reef and ±25 m along it. The 19 heights are verified.

Outside the preserved north-west survey patch, drainage channels have irregular spacing, wandering bends, varied widths and occasional branches. This relief and its surface texture are illustrative; the measured patch and all 19 heights are unchanged.

The beach is about 30 m wide: derived from Landsat near the wreck, illustrative elsewhere. Outlines are traced map data. Terrain and water use the same natural scale as the trees, wreck and aircraft.

The tide is a five-constituent Hull Island proxy, transformed to Point A using the supplied Brandenburg (2013) relation. It is a reconstruction, not a local July 1937 measurement.

Pin texts are reproduced from the supplied data package, including its dated expedition wording and contested claims.

Sources, controls & diagnostics

Data package: niku-island-data.json, exported 8 October 2026. TIGHAR reef survey 2010, published in Brandenburg, Time and Tide, TIGHAR Tracks 29, 2013, Figs 5 and 7; point positions read off the figure, about ±10 to 14 m across the reef and ±25 m along it; TIGHAR / Brandenburg tidal study; Landsat 8, 28 July 2014; traced OpenStreetMap outlines.

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NIKUMARORO · 3D

The island before settlement.

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