Tenarunga
island in French Polynesia
Tenarunga or Tenania, previously Narunga and formerly Minto Island, is a low, wooded atoll in the Acteon Group in the southeastern part of the Tuamotu Islands in French Polynesia. It is administratively a part of the Gambier Islands. The atoll has a population of between 10 and 50 people.
Geography
Tenarunga is located 15 kilometres (9 miles) northwest of Matureivavao, 6 kilometres (4 miles) east of Vahanga and 1,375 kilometres (854 miles) southeast of Tahiti. It has a land area of 2.3 square kilometres (0.9 square miles) and a total area (lagoon inclusive) of 5 square kilometres (2 square miles). There are some buildings and a dock located on the north-east side of the island, indicating former and/or seasonal habitation.
The atoll's lagoon is not accessible from the sea.
History
The first recorded sighting of this atoll was made during the Spanish expedition of the Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernández de Quirós on 5 February 1606 under the name Las Cuatro Coronadas (the "four crowned" (by coconut palms)); however, these observations were not fully documented. As such, the first unambiguous approach to the island was made on 14 March 1828 by the collector Hugh Cuming in his ship The Discoverer, captained by Samuel Grimwood. The next visit was in 1833 by the navigator Thomas Ebrill on his merchant's vessel Amphitrite and again in 1837 by Lord Edward Russell, commander of the H.M.S Actaeon, the name given to the group.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Tenarunga” is island in French Polynesia. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Tenarunga, island and French, not as a finished interpretation.
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q682903. Authority coordinates are -21.350, -136.533. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1606, 1828, 1833 and 1837.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tenarunga” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.