Mckean
McKean lies at the northwestern edge of the Rawaki Islands, located 123 km northwest from Nikumaroro and 232 km northeast from Orona; Kanton, the only inhabited member of the Rawaki Islands, is located 280 km to the northeast. Farther to the north-northwest, 496 km distant, are the two remote outliers of the Rawaki Islands group: Howland and Baker.
Approximately oval in outline and measuring less than 1 km across, McKean is one of the smallest of the Rawaki Islands with a surface area of 57 ha. The entire island is surrounded by a fringing reef system and like many other small central Pacific islands its terrain rises from a raised beach crest composed of coral fragments, rubble and sand to an interior depression that is occupied by a hypersaline lagoon. Vegetation on the island is sparse, comprising typical atoll scrub species of shrubs, herbs and grasses.
McKean has the world's largest nesting population of lesser frigatebird (Fregata ariel), with a population of up to 85,000 birds.
image: earth sciences and image analysis laboratory, nasa johnson space center