TUAMOTU ARCHIPELAGO

French les Tuamotu, also called Paumotu, island group of French Polynesia, central South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago comprises 75 atolls, one raised coral atoll (Makatea), and innumerable coral reefs, roughly dispersed northwest-southeast as a double chain for over 900 miles (1,450 km). The islands, save for Makatea, are entirely flat with little freshwater. The largest atoll of the group is Rangiroa, which consists of a circle of 20 islets surrounding a broad lagoon. Fakarava and Hoa atolls are also important. Raroia is the reef on which the Kon-Tiki expedition ended its 4,300-mile drift across the Pacific in 1947. Pokapuka atoll was sighted by Ferdinand Magellan as he crossed the Pacific in 1521. Iron cannons recovered on Amanu in 1929 and 1969 indicate that the Spanish caravel San Lesmes was shipwrecked on the atoll in 1526. Subsequently visited by the Portuguese Pedro Fernndez de Quirs (1606) and others, the islands came under French protection in 1844 and were annexed in 1880 as a Tahitian dependency. They now form, with the Gambier Islands, a circonscription (administrative division) of French Polynesia, with circonscription headquarters at Papeete, on Tahiti. The islands' villages are situated near lagoons where pearl oysters, fish, and coconuts support the population. Since World War II many villagers have emigrated to Papeete. The uninhabited atolls of Mururoa (q.v.) and Fangataufa have been used by France for nuclear weapons tests since the 1960s. An airstrip on Hoa serves the testing grounds. Pop. (1988) 11,754.