Mount Nanlaud

Where is Mount Nanlaud?

Mount Nanlaud is part of the Island of Pohnpei.

You will find it in: Micronesia.

Summit: 6.874° N, 158.229° E

The story behind it

Pohnpei is the worn-down remains of an old shield volcano, and Nanlaud is the highest of the ridges and knobs left after millions of years of rain carved the island into steep valleys. That rain is the real story here: the island's interior is one of the wettest places on Earth, and water runs off the basalt in countless streams and waterfalls. The forest on the upper slopes is a cloud forest, where trees stay small and crooked and every branch carries moss, ferns and orchids. Birds that live nowhere else, such as the Pohnpei lorikeet and the Pohnpei fantail, call from the canopy, and fruit bats glide over the treetops in the evening. Paths to the top are muddy, slippery and often overgrown, so walkers go with local guides who know the ridges and the old names of each stream.

Find it on the globe

Mount Nanlaud is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.