It
turns out that the fifteen Northern Mariana islands, located in the
western Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and the Philippines,
are one of two Commonwealths of the United States. (The other is
Puerto Rico.) Apparently, the Northern Marianas are completely unique
because they “were not conquered, annexed, or purchased by the United States.” Instead,
the people of these islands negotiated with the U.S. to get the
commonwealth relationship that the majority wanted.
The
natives of the Marianas arrived at the islands around 2000 BCE, but
they almost died out from diseases after Spaniards discovered and
settled the islands. (Some remnants of the native population
remained, and they have since repopulated three of the islands, along with
other groups.) Germany won control of the islands for a while, and
Japan later invaded and occupied them. Finally, at the end of World
War II, the U.S. military invaded the Marianas and liberated them
from the Japanese. Many territories liberated by the U.S. during the
war have become independent nations, but the people of the Northern
Marianas chose instead to establish close political ties with the
super-power.
These Commonwealth citizens can elect someone to be part of Congress, but their Congressional Representative can only vote in committee, not on the floor. Also, the people of the Northern Marianas cannot vote for president.
The Northern Marianas Islands can be divided into two groups. The southern islands are made
of limestone (a sedimentary rock laid down in layers from the skeletons of sea creatures) and fringed with corals (which are living
creatures that create reefs, which become home to many more living
creatures). The three islands that are inhabited (where people
actually live) are all this limestone type.
The
northern islands are volcanoes. And some of these volcanoes are
active, which means that they can and sometimes do erupt! Nobody
lives on these islands.
To
the east of the Northern Mariana Islands is the Mariana Trench—the
deepest part of the Earth's oceans. The trench plunges more than
36,000 feet (almost seven miles) down. (In metric terms, that is
almost 11 kilometers.) Weird giant one-celled organisms live in this
trench. They can reach as large as four inches long!
You
may wonder why a critter only four inches long gets to be called
“giant,” but remember that it is only
one cell! The biggest
cell in the human body can barely be seen with a human eye—and most
cells can only be seen with a microscope. So a four-inch cell is
giant!
If
you ever want to stump your friends, learn the name of this giant
one-celled creature: an Xenophyophore. Learn how to pronounce it
here.
According
to Geek O System, xenophyophores eat dirt and even “tolerate high levels of heavy metals like uranium.” They ooze a kind of cement
from their bodies...and they build their bodies “out of whatever is lying around nearby.”
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