Tuamotu << `too` uh MOH too >> Islands are an island group in the South Pacific. The group has 76 reef islands and atolls (rings of coral islands). It extends across nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) of water and has dangerous underwater reefs. The islands cover about 300 square miles (775 square kilometers). Destructive hurricanes sometimes strike the islands, which have a tropical climate. Like other low-elevation atolls, the islands often have shortages of fresh water. These shortages are due to low rainfall and a lack of lakes and rivers. Pearls and copra are the chief sources of income.
In 1606, Pedro Fernández de Quirós, a Portuguese explorer in the service of Spain, became the first European to see the islands. A native king ruled the islands until 1881, when France annexed them. France now administers the Tuamotus, together with the nearby Gambier Islands, as a unit of French Polynesia, an overseas possession. The two island groups have a total population of about 17,000. France tested nuclear bombs on Mururoa atoll from 1965 until the early 1990’s.
