Clipperton Island

Clipperton Island is an 8.9 km2 uninhabited French coral atoll in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It was documented by French merchant-explorers in 1711 and formally claimed as part of the French protectorate of Tahiti in 1858. However, Mexico asserted a claim to the island based on Spanish records from the 1520s and established a small military colony on the island in 1905, but it was later abandoned in 1917 after most colonists died. The dispute between Mexico and France was resolved in 1931 through binding international arbitration, with Victor Emmanuel III ruling in favor of France. Since World War II, the island has primarily been the site for scientific expeditions to study its wildlife and marine life. It is located at 10°18′N 109°13′W in the East Pacific, 1,080 km southwest of Mexico, and is the only emerged part of the East Pacific Rise and the only feature in the Clipperton Fracture Zone that breaks the ocean's surface. The atoll is low-lying and largely barren, with some scattered grasses and coconut palms.learn more on wikipedia