It is one of only two possessions of the United States in the southern hemisphere, the other being Jarvis Island. Its total land area is 76.8 square miles (199 km2), consisting of five rugged, volcanic islands and two coral atolls. Of the seven islands, Rose Atoll is an uninhabited Marine National Monument. American Samoa Climate is warm, humid, and rainy year-round. It is tropical, and precipitation is ample; Pago Pago receives about two hundred inches annually. Most streams carry greater volumes of water in the highlands than near the sea and do not reach the ocean. The average temperature ranges from the high sixties to the low nineties Fahrenheit (about 21 to 22°C). The average humidity in American Samoa is 80 percent. The moderate southeast trade walls prevail, but severe storms can occur during the wet season, from November to March. American Samoa is in the South Pacific Ocean, so a tropical climate prevails. Temperatures are warm or hot year-round (high 70’s to low 90’s F) with high humidity. Rain showers are frequent and may last an entire day, or for a few minutes. The average annual rainfall in the drier portions of the island is 125 inches to as much as 300 inches in the highest mountains. Tropical storms are more prevalent during the rainy season (November to …show more content…
Global warming is affecting American Samoa because sea level is rising, it is threating villages built near the shore. Deforestation is also threating Samoa’s ecosystem, as species homes are being cut down, leaving less room for native and non-native species. Coralline algae is a plant that usually grows as a smooth pink coating that slowly spreads a thin layer across reef surfaces. It can grow over pieces of dead coral rubble and eventually cement them together and stabilize a field of loose rubble that was rolling around with the waves. The loose rubble, then, invades the coral reefs and breaks off pieces of coral, leaving them to die off and creates