| Diego Garcia |
Diego Garcia is the largest atoll, in terms of land area, in Chagos Archipelago, part of the British Indian Ocean Territory.
The island is located in the Indian Ocean, about 1,600 km (1,000 mi) south of the southern coast of India. Other countries in the vicinity of Diego Garcia include Sri Lanka and Maldives.
In the 1960s, the Chagos archipelago was leased to the United Kingdom and detached from Mauritius with the intention of setting up plantations. However, in 1971 the United Kingdom and United States entered an agreement under which the latter would set up a military base in Diego Garcia.
Since then, United Kingdom enforced the highly controversial depopulation of Diego Garcia. It has one of the five ground antennas assisting the operation of the Global Positioning System, the others being on Ascension Island, Hawaii, Kwajalein and Colorado Springs.
It is covered in luxuriant tropical vegetation, with little sign of the copra and coconut plantations that once covered it. It is 60 kilometres (37 mi) long, with a maximum elevation of 6.7 metres (22 ft), and nearly encloses a lagoon about 19 kilometres (12 mi) long and up to 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) wide. Depths in the lagoon extend to 30 metres (98 ft), and numerous coral heads form hazards to navigation. Shallow reefs surround the island on the ocean side. The channel and anchorage area are dredged, while the old turning basin can also be used. |
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| Geography |
The island consists of the largest continuous atoll in the world. The dryland rim varies in width from a few hundred meters to 2.4 km. Typical of coral atolls, it has a maximum elevation on some dunes on the ocean side of the rim of just nine meters (30 feet) above mean low water. The rim nearly encloses a lagoon about 19 kilometres (12 mi) long and up to 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) wide. The atoll forms a nearly complete rim of land around a lagoon, enclosing 90 percent of its perimeter, with an opening only in the north. The main island is the largest of about sixty islands which form the Chagos Archipelago. Besides the main island, there are three small islets at the mouth of the lagoon: West Island (3.4 ha/8.4 acres); Middle Island (6 ha/14.8 acres); and East Island (11.75 ha/29 acres). A fourth island shown on some maps, Anniversary Island one km (1,100 yards) southwest of Middle Island, appears as just a sand bar on satellite images. Both Middle Island and Anniversary Island are part of the Spur Reef complex.
The total area of the atoll is 65.6 square miles (170 km2). The lagoon area is 47.9 square miles (120 km2) with depths ranging down to 80 feet (25 m). The total land area (excluding peripheral reefs) is 11.6 square miles (30 km2).
The coral reef surrounding the seaward side of the atoll is generally broad, flat, and shallow at about 3 feet (1 m) below mean sea level in most locations and varying from 300 to 650 feet (100 to 200 m) in width. This fringing seaward reef shelf comprises an area of approximately 13.61 square miles (35.2 km2). At the outer edge of the reef shelf, the bottom slopes very steeply into deep water, at some locations dropping to more than 1,500 feet (457 m) within 0.6 miles (1 km) of the shore. |
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| In the lagoon, numerous coral heads present hazards to navigation. The shallow reef shelf surrounding the island on the ocean side offers no ocean-side anchorage. The channel and anchorage areas in the northern half of the lagoon are dredged, along with the pre-1971 ship turning basin. Significant salt-water wetlands called barachois exist in the southern half of the lagoon. These are small lagoons off of the main lagoon, filled with seawater at high tide and dry at low tide. Scientific expeditions in 1996 and 2006 described the lagoon and surrounding waters of Diego Garcia, along with the rest of the Chagos Archipelago, as "exceptionally unpolluted" and "pristine". |
Diego Garcia is frequently subject to earthquakes caused by tectonic plate movement along the Carlsberg Ridge located just to the west of the island. One was recorded in 1812; one measuring 7.6 on the Richter Scale hit on November 30, 1983 at 21:46 local time and lasted 142 seconds, resulting in a small tsunami which raised wave height in the lagoon to 1.5 meters (5 feet), and another on December 2, 2002, an earthquake measuring 4.6 on the Richter Scale struck the island at 12:21 a.m.
In December 2004, a tsunami generated near Indonesia caused some shoreline erosion on Barton Point (the northeast point of the atoll of Diego Garcia).
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| Climate |
Annual rainfall averages 260 cm (102 in), with the heaviest precipitation from October to February. August, the driest month, averages 100 mm (4.2 in). Temperatures are generally close to 30°C (86 °F) by day, falling to the low 20s °C (70 °F) by night. Humidity is high throughout the year. The almost constant breezes keep conditions reasonably comfortable.
Diego Garcia is at risk from tropical cyclones. The surrounding topography is low and does not provide an extensive wind break. Since the 1960s the island has not been seriously affected by a severe tropical cyclone, even though it has often been threatened. The maximum sustained wind associated with a tropical cyclone in the period 1970-2000 was approximately 40 knots (75 km/h).The island was somewhat affected by the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Service personnel on the western arm of the atoll island reported only a minor increase in wave activity. The island was protected to a large degree by its favourable ocean topography.
About 80 km (50 mi) east of the atoll lies the 650 km (400-mile) long Chagos Trench, an underwater canyon plunging more than 4,900 m (16,000 ft). The depth of the trench and its grade to the atoll's slope and shelf shore makes it more difficult for substantial tsunami waves to build before passing the atoll from the east.
In addition, near shore coral reefs and an algal platform may have dissipated much of the waves' impact. A biological survey conducted in early 2005 indicated erosional effects of the tsunami wave on Diego Garcia and other islands of the Chagos Archipelago. |
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One 200 to 300 m stretch of atoll shoreline was found to have been breached by the tsunami wave, representing approximately 10 percent of the eastern arm. A biological survey by the Chagos Conservation Trust reported that the resulting inundation additionally washed away shoreline shrubs and small to medium size coconut palms.
On November 30, 1983 a magnitude 7 earthquake 55 km (34 mi) northwest of the island caused a small tsunami resulting in a 1.5 m (5 ft) rise in wave height in the lagoon, causing some damage to buildings, piers and the runway. |
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| History of Diego Garcia |
The islands were part of the group called in ancient times the Lakshadweepa (One Hundred Thousand Islands in Sanskrit) in Ancient India and were considered a part of the South Indian kingdoms.
The island may have been visited during the Austronesian diaspora around 700 C.E., and some say the old Maldivian name for the islands was of Malagasy origin. It is also suggested that the Arabs who reached the Laccadive and Maldive island in around 900 C.E. may have visited the Chagos, and that Cheng Ho may have sailed close in 1413-1415 A.D. However, there is no evidence to date of any of these suppositions. |
Portuguese explorers may have been the first Europeans to discover the island of Diego Garcia. The Portuguese navigator Pedro de Mascarenhas (1470–June 23, 1555) may have discovered the island during his voyage of 1512–13, but there is little corroborative evidence for this; cartographic analysis points to 1532 or later.
Tradition suggests that the island took its name from the same Diego García de Moguer who sailed to the Río de la Plata in 1526, and possibly with Hernando de Soto's voyage.[citation needed] García headed a Portuguese expedition in the Indian ocean in 1554 and died before completing the return travel. Some Portuguese scholars believe that the Christian name "Diego" of the island's discoverer was a misnomer or a misreading which came into use towards the end of the sixteenth century.
Although the Cantino Planisphere (1504) and the Ruysch map (1507) clearly delineate the Maldives, giving them the same names, they show no islands to the south which can be identified as the Chagos archipelago.
The Sebastian Cabot map (Antwerp 1544) shows a number of islands to the south which may be the Mascarene group. The first map which identifies and names 'Los Chagos' (in about the right position) is that of Pierre Descelier (Dieppe 1550), although Diego Garcia is not named. |
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Chagossians protesting in London |
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An island called 'Don Garcia' appears on the Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis of Abraham Ortelius (Antwerp 1564), together with 'Dos Compagnos', slightly to the north. It may be the case that 'Don Garcia' was named after Garcia de Noronha, although there no evidence exists to support this supposition.
The island is also shown as 'Don Garcia' on Mercator's Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Description (Duisburg 1569). However, on the Vera Totius Expeditionis Nauticae Description of Jodocus Hondius (London 1589), 'Don Garcia' mysteriously changes its name to 'I. de Dio Gratia', while the 'I. de Chagues' appears close by.
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| The first map to delineate the island under its present name, Diego Garcia, is the World Map of Edward Wright (London 1599), possibly as a result of misreading Dio (or simply 'D.') as Diego, and Gratia as Garcia. The Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica of Henricus Hondius (Antwerp 1630) repeats Wright's misreading of the name, which is then proliferated on all subsequent Dutch maps of the period, and to the present day. |
Diego Garcia and the rest of the Chagos islands were uninhabited until the late 18th century. In 1778 the French Governor of Mauritius granted Monsieur Dupuit de la Faye the island of Diego Garcia, and there is evidence of temporary French visits to collect coconuts and fish. Several Frenchmen living in "a dozen huts" abandoned Diego Garcia when the British East India Company attempted to establish a settlement there in April 1786. The supplies of the 275 settlers were overwhelmed by 250 survivors of the wreck of the British East Indian Ship ATLAS in May, and the colony failed in October. Following the departure of the English, the French colony of Mauritius began marooning lepers on Diego Garcia, and in 1793 the French established a coconut plantation using slave labour, which also exported cordage made from coconut fiber, and sea cucumbers, known as a delicacy in the orient. Diego Garcia became a colony of the United Kingdom after the Napoleonic wars, and from 1814–1965 it was administered from Mauritius.
On Diego Garcia, the main plantations were located at East Point, the main settlement on the eastern rim of the atoll; Minni Minni, 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) north of East Point; and Pointe Marianne, on the western rim, all located on the lagoon side of the atoll rim. The workers lived at these locations, and at villages scattered around the island.
From 1881 through 1888, Diego Garcia was the location of two coaling stations for steam ships crossing the Indian Ocean.
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In 1882, the French-financed, Mauritian-based Societe Huilere de Diego et Peros (the "Oil Can Company of Diego and Peros"), consolidated all the plantations in the Chagos under its control.
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In 1914, the island was visited by the German light cruiser SMS EMDEN half-way through its historic commerce raiding cruise during the first months of World War I.
Barachois Maurice, Diego Garcia.In 1942, the British established an Advanced Flying Boat base at the East Point Plantation, staffed and equipped from the 205 and 240 Squadrons, then stationed on Ceylon. Both Catalina and Sunderlands were flown during the course of World War II in search of Japanese and German submarines and surface raiders. Following the conclusion of hostilities, the base was closed on 30 April 1946.
In 1962, the Chagos Agalega Company of the British colony of the Seychelles purchased the Societe Huiliere de Diego et Peros and moved company headquarters to the Seychelles. |
In 1962, the Chagos Agalega Company of the British colony of the Seychelles purchased the Societe Huiliere de Diego et Peros and moved company headquarters to the Seychelles.
In the early 1960s, the U.K. was withdrawing its military presence from the Indian Ocean area, and agreed to permit the U.S. to establish a Naval Communication Station on one of its island territories there. The U.S. requested an unpopulated island belonging to the U.K. to avoid political difficulties with newly-independent countries, and ultimately the U.K. and U.S. agreed that Diego Garcia was a suitable location.[27] |
To accomplish the U.K./U.S. mutual defense strategy, in November 1965, the U.K. purchased the Chagos Archipelago, which includes Diego Garcia, from the then self-governing colony of Mauritius for £3 millions to create the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), with the intent of ultimately closing the plantations to provide the uninhabited British territory from which the U.S. would conduct its military activities in the region. On 30 December 1966, the U.S. and the U.K. executed an Agreement through an Exchange of Notes which permit the U.S. to use the BIOT for defense purposes for 50 years (through December 2016), followed by a 20 year optional extension (to 2036) to which both parties must agree by December 2014.
No monetary payment was made from the U.S. to the U.K. as part of this agreement, or any subsequent amendment, and the commonly used term "lease" to describe the U.S. use of Diego Garcia is not exactly correct. It is, rather, an approved occupation authorized through a sequence of diplomatic notes and agreements.
However, in a now-declassified addendum to the 1966 agreement, the United Kingdom received a US$14M discount from the U.S. on the acquisition of submarine launched ballistic missile system Polaris missiles. |
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| In April 1966 the British Government bought the entire assets of the Chagos Agalega Company in the BIOT for £600,000 and administered them as a government enterprise while awaiting U.S. funding of the proposed facilities, with an interim objective of paying for the administrative expenses of the new territory. However, the plantations, both under their previous private ownership and under government administration, proved consistently unprofitable due to the introduction of new oils and lubricants in the international marketplace, and the establishment of vast coconut plantations in the East Indies and the Philippines. |
| In March 1971, U.S. Naval construction battalions (SEABEES) arrived on Diego Garcia to begin the construction of the Communications Station and an airfield. To satisfy the terms of an agreement between the U.K. and the U.S. for an uninhabited island, the plantation on Diego Garcia was closed in October of that year. The plantation workers and their families, some of whom had been on Diego Garcia for generations, were relocated to the plantations on Peros Bahnos and Solomon atolls to the northwest; those who requested were transported to the Seychelles or Mauritius. In 1972, the U.K. decided to close the plantations throughout the Chagos, including those on Peros Banhos and the Salomon Islands, and deported the Ilois to their ancestral homes on either the Seychelles or Mauritius. The then-independent Mauritian government refused to accept the islanders without payment, and in 1973, the U.K. gave the Mauritian government an additional ₤650,000 to resettle the islanders. |
| By 1973, construction of the Naval Communications Station (NAVCOMMSTA) was completed. In the early 1970s, setbacks to U.S. military capabilities in the region including the fall of Saigon, victory of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and the North Vietnamese invasion of Laos, the closure of the Peshawar Air Station listening post in Pakistan and Kagnew Station in Ethiopia, the Mayaguez Incident, and the build up of Soviet Naval presence in Aden and a Soviet Air Base at Berbera, Somalia, caused the U.S. to request, and the U.K. to approve, permission to build a fleet anchorage and enlarged airfield on Diego Garcia, and the SEABEES doubled the number of workers construction these facilities. |
| Following the fall of the Shah of Iran and the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1979-1980, the West became concerned with ensuring the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf through the Straight of Hormuz, and the U.S. received permission for a $400 millions expansion of the military facilities on Diego Garcia consisting of two parallel 12000-foot-long (0 m) runways, expansive parking aprons for heavy bombers, twenty new anchorages in the lagoon, a deep water pier, port facilities for the largest naval vessels in the U.S. or British fleet, aircraft hangars, maintenance buildings and an air terminal, a 1,340,000 barrel fuel storage area, and billeting and messing facilities for thousands of sailors and support personnel. |
| On 1 October 1977, Naval Support Facility, Diego Garcia, was established at the senior U.S. Navy command on the island. At the time the NAVCOMMSTA was the primary tenant, but as the new major facilities were completed, most notably the expanded anchorage and mooring area and the extended airfield, other tenants were commissioned. |
In 1980, the U.S. Navy established the Near-Term Prepositioned Force of 16 ships. Then NTPF became the Afloat Prepositioning Force (AFP) and eventually Composite Squadron Two (COMPSRON 2) consisting of 20 deep-water pre-positioned logistics ships anchored in the lagoon.
In 1981, the Naval Air Facility was commissioned. It was decommissioned in 1987 and its responsibilities returned to the NSF.
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| In 1982, Construction activities were transferred from the SEABEES to a consortium of civilian contractors, and the majority of the projects were completed by 1988. On 26 March 1982, Barbara Shuping and five other women were assigned to the NSF. Prior to this assignment, no women had lived on island since those on the plantation in 1971. |
In 1985, the new port facilities were completed, and the USS SARATOGA (CV-60) was the first aircraft carrier to tie up.
The Strategic Air Command began deploying B-52 bombers and aerial refueling aircraft to the newly completed airfield facilities in 1987.
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| Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, three ships of COMPSRON 2 sortied, delivering a Marine Expeditionary Brigade to defend the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Other COMPSRON 2 ships offloaded the munitions, bombs, and fuel on Diego Garcia that were required for the U.S. bomber fleet that deployed to airfield. Subsequently, B-52G bombers flew more than 200 17-hour bombing missions over 44 days and dropped more than 800,000 tons (727,300,000 kilograms [kg]) of bombs on Iraqi forces in Iraq and Kuwait. One of the B-52s crashed from mechanical failures just north of the island with the loss of three of its six-man crew. |
| Beginning on 7 Oct 2001, the U.S. again commenced military operations from Diego Garcia using B-1, B-2, and B-52 bombers to attack enemy targets in Afghanistan following the attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. A B-1 bomber was lost on 12 Dec 2001 to mechanical failures just after take off from the island, but the crew survived and was rescued by the USS RUSSELL (DDG-59).[44] Combat operations resumed in the spring of 2003, with MPSRON TWO sortieing to the Persian Gulf for Operation Iraqi Freedom, and bombing operations began again, this time against Iraq. Bomber operations ceased from Diego Garcia on 15 Aug 2006. |
In 2004, the U.K. applied for, and received, Ramsar Site status for the lagoon and other waters of Diego Garcia.
On 1 April 2010, the U.K. Cabinet declared the Chagos Archipelago a Marine Protected Area and prohibited all extractive industry including fishing and oil and gas exploration. It is unclear whether Diego Garcia is included in the MPA.
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| GPS |
| Diego Garcia is one of the five control bases for the Global Positioning System, operated by the US military. The US Air Force also has monitoring stations in Hawaii, Kwajalein, Ascension Island, and Colorado Springs, Colorado. The stations synchronise and update the atomic clocks on the 24 orbiting satellites that emit the signals used by GPS receivers. |
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| Space Shuttle |
| The island is one of 33 emergency landing sites worldwide for the United States Space Shuttle. None of these facilities have been used for a Shuttle landing. |
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| Strategic Importance |
During the Cold War era, the United States was keen on establishing a military base in the Indian Ocean. Because of Diego Garcia's proximity to India, the United States saw the island as a strategically important one. U.S. military activities in Diego Garcia have caused friction between India and U.S. in the past.
Various political parties in India repeatedly demanded that the U.S. dismantle the military base as they saw U.S. naval presence in Diego Garcia as a potential threat to India's dominance of the Indian Ocean.
After the end of the Cold War, relations between India and U.S. improved dramatically. Diego Garcia was the site of several naval exercises between the U.S. and Indian Navy held between 2001 and 2004.
Diego Garcia is also located relatively close to the Middle East, and experienced rapid military build-ups during the beginnings of the Iranian revolution and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Diego Garcia has several current missions. U.S. Air Force bombers and AWACS surveillance planes operate from the 3,650 m (12,000 ft) runway, and the USAF Space Command has built a satellite tracking station and communications facility. |
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| The atoll shelters the 14 ships of Marine Prepositioning Squadron Two. These ships carry the equipment and supplies to support a major armed force with tanks, armored personnel carriers, munitions, fuel, spare parts and even a mobile field hospital. This equipment showed its necessity during the Persian Gulf War, when the Squadron quickly delivered its equipment to Saudi Arabia. There, soldiers flown on air transports from U.S. and European bases quickly unloaded and deployed the pre-positioned material. |
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| Wildlife |
All consumable food and equipment is brought to Diego Garcia by sea or air, and all non-biodegradable waste is shipped off the island as well.
From 1971 to 1973, U.S. Navy LSTs provided this service. Beginning in 1973, civilian ships were contracted to provide these services.
Beginning in 2004 the U.S.-flagged container ship MV Baffin Strait, often referred to as the "DGAR shuttle," has been chartered to deliver 250 containers each month to Diego Garcia from Singapore. The ship delivered more than 200,000 tons of cargo to the island each year." On the return trip to Singapore, it carries recyclable metals.
In 2004 TransAtlantic Lines outbid Sealift Incorporated for the transport contract between Singapore and Diego Garcia. The route had previously been serviced by Sealift Inc.'s MV Sagamore, manned by members of American Maritime Officers and Seafarers' International Union. TransAtlantic Lines reportedly won the contract by approximately 10 percent, representing a price difference of about US$2.7 million.
The Baffin Strait's charter ran from 10 January 2005 to 30 September 2008 at a daily rate of US$12,550. |
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| Map of Diego Garcia |
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