Nassau Island

▪ island, Cook Islands, Pacific Ocean

      coral formation of the Cook Islands, a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean. The only island of the northern Cooks that is not an atoll, Nassau is oval in shape. Surrounded by a fringing reef, the island has sand dunes 35 feet (11 metres) high. The first European sighting of Nassau appears to have been made by the French navigator Louis Coutance of the Adèle, in 1803. It was annexed to Britain in 1892 and exports copra. Area 0.5 square mile (1.3 square km). Pop. (2006 prelim.) 71.

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