CAROLINE ATOLL

also called Thornton Island coral formation in the Central and Southern Line Islands, part of Kiribati, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, about 450 miles (720 km) northwest of Tahiti. It is made up of 20 islets, with a total area of 1.45 square miles (3.76 square km), that rise to 20 feet (6 m) above mean sea level and enclose a shallow lagoon (6 miles by 1 mile). Once occupied by Polynesians, the islets were sighted in 1795 by Captain William R. Broughton, an Englishman. Claimed by Britain in 1868, the atoll became a part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony in 1972 and a part of independent Kiribati in 1979. There are no permanent inhabitants.