Flooding on Sand Island

Sand Island is the largest of the three islands at Midway Atoll. This picture shows a flooded ares in the aftermath of the tsunami at sunrise. A tsunami generated by a powerful earthquake off the coast of Japan struck the refuge at 11:36 PM on Thursday, March 10th and continued for the next few hours. While Spit Island was completely washed over, Eastern and Sand Island were 60% and 20% washed over, respectively. Image taken from USFWS Pacific Region Flickr page.