Tureia

Tureia
Tureia
Commune
	NASA image of Tureia Atoll.
	Location of Tureia
	Coordinates: 20°46′16″S 138°33′53″W / 20.771228°S 138.564828°WCoordinates: 20°46′16″S 138°33′53″W / 20.771228°S 138.564828°W
Country	France
Overseas collectivity	French Polynesia
Subdivision	Îles Tuamotu-Gambier
Area 1	8 km2 (3 sq mi)
Population (2017)	336
• Density	42/km2 (110/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC−10:00
INSEE/Postal code	98755 /
	1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Tureia
	Tureia
	Tureia
Geography
Location	Pacific Ocean
Coordinates	20°46′16″S 138°33′53″W / 20.77111°S 138.56472°W
Archipelago	Tuamotus
Area	47 km2 (18 sq mi) (lagoon); 8 km2 (3 sq mi) (above water)
Length	15 km (9.3 mi)
Width	8 km (5 mi)
Administration
	France
Overseas collectivity	French Polynesia
Administrative subdivision	Tuamotus
Commune	Tureia
Largest settlement	Hakamaru
Demographics
Population	275 (2017)

Tureia (also called Papahena) is an atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia.

Tureia atoll is 15 km long and has a maximum width of 8 kilometres (5.0 miles); its total land area is 8 km2. A very long island covers completely its eastern reef. The lagoon has no navigable entrance.

The village of Hakamaru (or Fakamaru) is the only settlement on Tureia, at the northern tip of the atoll. Almost all of the arable land on Tureia is dedicated to growing coconuts. The population in this atoll has risen to 275 in 2017;^[1] in 1977 there were only 121 inhabitants.

History[]

The first recorded European to arrive at Tureia was Captain Edward Edwards in 1791, during his search for the Bounty mutineers. Edwards called the atoll "Carysfort", after John Proby, 1st Earl of Carysfort.

From 1966 to 1999, Tureia hosted an outpost of the Centre d'Expérimentation du Pacifique, the French authority supervising nuclear tests on the nearby atolls of Moruroa and Fangataufa, which lie about 115 km south of Tureia. There was also a weather station on Tureia during those years. Currently, both installations have been abandoned.

This atoll has a 900 m-long airstrip (IATA: ZTA, ICAO: NTGY). Tureia Airport was inaugurated in 1985.