Guam

Guam is an island in the Pacific Ocean.

It is warm all year. Hagåtña is the capital. People speak English and Chamorro.

Guam is an island in the western Pacific Ocean, the largest and most southern of the Mariana Islands. It is about 9,300 kilometers west of San Francisco and 2,600 kilometers east of Manila, in the Philippines.

Guam is a territory of the United States; under a 1950 law, Chamorros became US citizens. It has its own elected governor and legislature. English and Chamorro are the official languages, the US dollar is the money, and the capital is Hagåtña, also called Agana.

Britannica describes Guam as an unincorporated territory of the United States and the largest, most populous and southernmost of the Mariana Islands. Under the Organic Act of Guam, passed by Congress in 1950, Chamorros were granted US citizenship. Guam elects a governor and a one-house legislature and sends a delegate with limited voting rights to the US House of Representatives; residents do not vote in national elections, though they can vote in presidential primaries.

The US Census Bureau's 2020 Island Areas census counted 153,836 people, 3.5% fewer than in 2010; Dededo was the most populous municipality, with just under 45,000. Britannica notes that about one-third of the island's land is owned by the US armed forces, including Andersen Air Force Base in the north and naval facilities around the island.

Hagåtña is the capital. It sits by a blue bay.

Dededo is the town with the most people. Big hotels stand along Tumon Bay.

Hagåtña, on the west coast, is the capital. The photo, taken from a hill above the town, shows its white buildings, green trees and the bright blue bay beyond.

Dededo, in the north-central part of the island, has the most people of any village. Tumon Bay, north of the capital, has been built up for visitors, with many hotels along its beach. An international airport links Guam with Asia, other Pacific islands, Hawaii and the US mainland.

Hagåtña (Agana) is the capital, though it is home to only a small part of the population; Dededo, in the north-central part of the island, was the most populous municipality in 2020.

Tumon Bay has been heavily developed for tourism, with luxury hotels, and Britannica calls tourism the most prominent part of the economy. Britannica notes that work at the military bases drew many islanders away from subsistence farming and fishing. The hero photo looks over Hagåtña and its bay from Fort Santa Agueda, a hilltop fort.

The north of Guam is flat and covered in jungle.

The south has green hills. It is warm and rainy. Sometimes big storms called typhoons come.

Guam has two halves. The north is a flat limestone plateau about 150 meters high, covered in thick jungle. The south is made of volcanic hills covered mostly in sword grass, rising to Mount Lamlam, 406 meters high.

The temperature stays between about 20 and 30 °C all year. About 2,400 millimeters of rain falls in a year, most of it from May or June to November. Typhoons, powerful tropical storms, sometimes strike the island. Offshore lies the Mariana Trench, the deepest known ocean trench on Earth; its deepest part, the Challenger Deep, is southwest of Guam.

Britannica describes an island sharply divided into a northern limestone plateau, generally about 150 m high and covered in jungle, and southern volcanic hills, mostly under sword grass, whose lower slopes carry younger limestones. Mount Lamlam (406 m) rises in the southwest, with Mount Bolanos (378 m) to its southeast.

The tropical climate is moderated by northeast trade winds and the North Equatorial Current; temperatures stay between about 20 and 30 °C, and about 2,400 mm of rain falls a year, three-fourths of it in the wet season from May or June to November. Typhoons strike at irregular intervals. Offshore, the Mariana Trench, formed where the Pacific Plate is forced below the Mariana Plate, reaches its greatest depth in the Challenger Deep southwest of Guam; it was made a US national monument in 2009.

Long ago, many birds sang in Guam's forests.

Then a snake came on a ship, and many birds were lost. People work hard to stop the snakes from reaching new places. A rare bird called the ko'ko' was moved to a small island to keep it safe.

The brown treesnake is not from Guam. It was first seen there in the 1950s, probably after hiding on cargo ships from New Guinea. With nothing to hunt it, it spread fast and helped wipe out nine of Guam's 11 kinds of native forest birds. It also climbs power lines and causes power cuts.

The Guam rail, or ko'ko', a bird found only on Guam, almost disappeared. In 2010 wildlife workers released ko'ko' on tiny Cocos Island, off the southwest coast, which in 2020 was its only wild home on Guam. Green sea turtles nest on Cocos Island's beaches too. The turtle photo was taken in French Polynesia.

USGS says the brown treesnake (Boiga irregularis), native to parts of Indonesia, the Solomon Islands, New Guinea and Australia, was first sighted on Guam in the 1950s, probably after stowing away on cargo ships from New Guinea. With no natural predators there it multiplied rapidly; it was a major contributor to the loss of nine of 11 native forest birds and to declines of native lizards, bats and other birds, and it causes costly power outages. USGS says there is no known way to remove it entirely; the strategy is to stop it reaching new places.

The ko'ko' (Guam rail), endemic to Guam, was introduced to Cocos Island in 2010 by the Guam Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources to save it from extinction in the wild. In 2020, USGS reported that brown treesnakes had been found on Cocos Island for the first time, and agencies began removing them. The island also has endangered Mariana skinks and nesting green sea turtles (haggan). The turtle photo is from Moorea, French Polynesia.

The Chamorro people are Guam's first people.

Many families speak Chamorro at home. Big extended families matter a lot. People also speak English.

The Chamorros (also spelled CHamoru) are Guam's native people. Their ancestors sailed from Southeast Asia, and over the centuries Spanish, Filipino, Mexican and other families joined them. Chamorros and other Micronesians make up about half of Guam's people, and many others have Filipino, Korean, Chinese or other roots.

Chamorro is still spoken in many homes, while English is the language of school and business. The extended family is the center of everyday life. Traditional arts, music and dance have had a revival.

Britannica describes the Chamorros as of Malayo-Indonesian descent with considerable Spanish, Filipino, Mexican and other European and Asian ancestry; with other Micronesians they account for about half the population. There are large communities from the Philippines and South Korea, and migrants from the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands. Chamorro, an Austronesian language that has absorbed many Spanish words, is still used in many homes, while English is the language of education and commerce; the name Chamorro is traced to Chamorri, 'noble'.

Spanish rule brought Roman Catholicism. The extended family remains the main social unit, traditional arts, music and dance have revived, and several local days are kept alongside US national holidays.