Moruroa

Moruroa is a special kind of land called an atoll.

An atoll is a ring of land that goes around a central lagoon.

This atoll sits in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia. You can find it about 1,250 kilometres southeast of Tahiti.

The map shows exactly where this ring of land sits in the sea. It is part of a group of places called the commune of Tureia. This group also includes the atolls of Fangataufa, Tematangi, and Vanavana.

Many different people have visited this place over the years. A commander named Philip Carteret first visited in 1767. He gave the atoll a very long name. Later, a British ship called the Matilda crashed there in 1792. Because of this, people called the area Matilda's Rocks. Explorers found that very few people lived there. Some people worked there to make copra in the late 1800s. Other workers lived there briefly between 1942 and 1952. However, no one has lived there permanently since those times.

Between 1966 and 1996, France used Moruroa for nuclear weapon tests.

This changed the atoll in many ways. At first, France did tests in the air. They used balloons, bombers, or even barges for these. There were 41 of these atmospheric tests. Later, they moved to testing deep underground. They drilled long shafts into the volcanic rocks. They placed the devices at the bottom of these holes. This was done to keep the explosions under the ground.

These tests caused many problems and big protests. In 1973, ships from New Zealand came to protest. In 1995, people all over the world protested again. One test in 1979 was especially dangerous. A device got stuck halfway down an 800-metre shaft. When it exploded, it caused a large landslide under the sea. This landslide created a tsunami that hit the atoll. It also caused a long crack to appear in the land. Some reports say there were 175 or 181 total explosions.

Today, Moruroa is a very different place than it was before. It is not safe for people to visit right now. This is because there is a lot of radiation there. The French government still keeps guards on the atoll.

Scientists are still studying the area today. They want to know if the atoll might collapse. They use sensors to watch the land very closely. They also study how the old tests affected the health of people nearby. It is a place that people are still learning about.