Bikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll, a ring of coral islets, forming part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, in the west-central Pacific Ocean. It consists of 36 islets encircling a large lagoon. The land area is about three square miles (8 km2). Bikini is uninhabited. The 170 Micronesians who lived on the atoll after World War II were evacuated by the United States, and Bikini was used as a nuclear weapons test site from 1946 to 1958. Bikini was administered by the United States, as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, from 1947 to 1986.