most easterly coral atoll of the Samoan archipelago, part of American Samoa, southwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a total land area of 0.1 square mile (0.3 square km), and neither of its two islets (Sand and Rose) rises more than 10 feet (3 metres) above sea level. Discovered (1819) by the French mariner Louis de Freycinet, the atoll was visited in 1838 by Commodore Charles Wilkes, in command of a U.S. South Seas surveying expedition. It became part of American Samoa in 1899 and is uninhabited. In 2009 it was designated a U.S. national monument.