Real Property

Here are some data on volcanic islands:

AMERICAN SAMOA

* is a U.S. territory with a population of 65,628 people.

* is about the size of Washington, DC, with only 77 square miles (199 square kilometers) of Earth's surface.

* is located midway between Hawaii and New Zealand.

* U.S. and Germany divided the Samoan archipelago in 1899, when Germany was left with the Western Isles.

* The small eastern group of islands occupied by the United States include Pago Pago, which has one of the best natural deepwater harbors in the South Pacific.

SAMOA

* An independent state with a population of 219,998 people, formerly known as Western Samoa.

* Its total land area of 1,092 square miles (2,831 square kilometers), slightly smaller to Rhode Island.

* Its two main islands are Savaii and Upolu.

* New Zealand occupied the German protectorate of Western Samoa at the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and administered the islands until 1962.

* The islands became the first Polynesian nation to reestablish independence in the twentieth century. The country dropped the Western from its name in 1997.

To access a map of the islands of Samoa, click http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/RNGS/SEP/TSUNAM.jpg

(Source: The CIA – World Factbook)