United States Minor Outlying Islands

The United States Minor Outlying Islands is a statistical designation defined by the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 3166-1 code. The entry code is ISO 3166-2:UM. The minor outlying islands and groups of islands consist of eight United States insular areas in the Pacific Ocean (Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Atoll, Palmyra Atoll, and Wake Island) and one in the Caribbean Sea (Navassa Island).

The islands, though scattered across the Pacific and quite small, are rich in history and nature, and have been quite strategically important. The nearly barren Howland is famous for being the island Amelia Earhart, a famous American woman that vanished on her round the world flight in 1938, was going to land on. Wake, home to a now extinct flightless bird, was the site of a pitched WW2 battle in 1941, and was an important stopover for aircraft transiting the Pacific in the mid-20th century. Likewise, Midway Atoll is home to many corals and birds, and was also the center of a famous battle of WW2 which helped turn the tide of the Pacific war. Other islands, like Palmyra, are rich in unique biodiversity and was also the site of a WW2 base. Johnston Atoll was a famous island for its Cold War base, when it was expanded and used to destroy chemical weapon stockpiles; it was also the site of a nuclear accident. Johnston was heavily modified with land expansion, while others are nearly untouched nature reserves.