Malden Island

A small (35 sq. mi.), barren, uninhabited island in the central Pacific Ocean (4 deg. S. 155 deg. W.), part of the territory of the Republic of Kiribati. Chiefly notable for its "mysterious" prehistoric ruins (of Polynesian origin), its once-extensive deposits of phosphatic guano (exploited by Australian interests from c. 1860-1927), and as the site of the first British thermonuclear weapons tests (1957).