Guam (Chamorro: Guåhan), officially the Territory of Guam, is an island in the Western Pacific Ocean and is an organized unincorporated territory of the United States. The Chamorros, Guam's indigenous inhabitants, first populated the island approximately 6,000 years ago. It is the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands. The island's capital is Hagåtña, formerly Agana. Guam's economy is mainly supported by tourism (particularly from Japan, Korea and Taiwan) and United States armed forces bases. The United Nations Committee on Decolonization includes Guam on their list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.

History
Guam is located at 13.5°N 144.5°E and has an area of 210 square miles (544 km²). It is the southernmost island in the Mariana island chain and is the largest island in Micronesia. This island chain was created by the colliding Pacific and Philippine tectonic plates. The Marianas Trench, a deep subduction zone, lies beside the island chain to the east. The Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth, is southwest of Guam at 35,797 feet (10,911 m) deep. The highest point in Guam is Mount Lamlam, which is 1,332 feet (406 m). The island of Guam is 46 miles (74 km) long and 4 mi (6 km) to 8 mi (13 km) wide. The island experiences occasional earthquakes due to being on the edge of the Pacific Plate. In recent years, quakes with epicenters near Guam have had magnitudes ranging from 5.0 to 8.7. Unlike the Anatåhan volcano in the northern Marianas, Guam is not volcanically active. However, due to wind direction and proximity, volcanic ash activity does occasionally affect Guam.
The northern part of the island is a forested coralline limestone plateau while the south contains volcanic peaks covered in forest and grassland. A coral reef surrounds most of the island, except in areas where bays exist that provide access to small rivers and streams that run down from the hills into the Pacific Ocean and Philippine Sea. The island's population is most dense in the northern and central regions.

Geography
The climate is characterized as tropical marine. The weather is generally warm and humid with little seasonal temperature variation. The mean high temperature is 86°F (30 °C) and mean low is 74°F (24 °C) with an average annual rainfall of 96 inches (2,180 mm). The dry season runs from December through June. The remaining months constitute the rainy season. The highest risk of typhoons is during October and November. They can occur, however, year-around.
An average of three tropical storms and one typhoon pass within 180 nautical miles (330 km) of Guam each year. The most intense typhoon to pass over Guam recently was Super Typhoon Pongsona, with sustained winds of 110 miles per hour, which slammed Guam on December 8, 2002, leaving massive destruction. Since Super Typhoon Pamela in 1976 wooden structures have been largely replaced by concrete structures. During the 1980s wooden utility poles began to be replaced by typhoon-resistant concrete and steel poles. In the 1990s many home and business owners installed typhoon shutters.

Climate
According to the U.S. census conducted in 2000, the population of Guam was 154,805. The largest ethnic group are the native Chamorros, accounting for 57% of the total population. Other ethnic groups include Filipino 25.5%, Caucasian 10%, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and others. Today, Roman Catholicism is the largest religion with 85% attesting to it. The official languages of the island are English and Chamorro.

Demographics
Traditional Chamorro culture is visually manifested in dance, sea navigation, unique cuisine, games (such as batu, chonka, estuleks, and bayogu), songs and fashion influenced by the migration of peoples from other lands. Spanish policy during colonial rule (1668-1898) was one of conquest and conversion to Roman Catholicism. This led to the gradual elimination of Guam's male warriors and displacement of the Chamorro people from their lands. In spite of the social upheavals, Guam's matriarchs—known as "I Maga'håga"—continued the indigenous culture, language, and traditions.
Historian Lawrence Cunningham in 1992 wrote, "In a Chamorro sense, the land and its produce belong to everyone. Inafa'maolek, or interdependence, is the key, or central value, in Chamorro culture ... Inafa'maolek depends on a spirit of cooperation. This is the armature, or core, that everything in Chamorro culture revolves around. It is a powerful concern for mutuality rather than individualism and private property rights."
The core culture or Pengngan Chamorro is comprised of complex social protocol centered upon respect: From the kissing of the hands of the elders (inspired by the kissing of a Roman Catholic bishop's ring by those whom he oversees), passing of legends, chants, and courtship rituals, to a person requesting forgiveness from spiritual ancestors when entering a jungle. Other practices predating Spanish conquest include galaide' canoe-making, making of the belembaotuyan (a string musical instrument), fashioning of åcho' atupat slings and slingstones, tool manufacture, Måtan Guma' burial rituals and preparation of herbal medicines by Suruhanu.
Master craftsmen and women specialize in weavings, including plaited work (niyok- and åkgak-leaf baskets, mats, bags, hats, and food containments), loom-woven material (kalachucha-hibiscus and banana fiber skirts, belts and burial shrouds), and body ornamentation (bead and shell necklaces, bracelets, earrings, belts and combs made from tortoise shells). Today only few masters exist to continue these traditional art forms.

Culture

Main article: Politics of Guam Government and politics

Main article: Villages of Guam Villages
Guam's economy depends primarily on tourism, the United States military base presence, and other federal spending. Although Guam receives no foreign aid, it does receive large transfer payments from the general revenues of the U.S. federal treasury into which Guam pays no income or excise taxes; under the provisions of a special law of Congress, the Guam treasury, rather than the U.S. treasury, receives federal income taxes paid by military and civilian federal employees stationed in Guam.
Sometimes called "America in Asia," Guam is a popular destination for Japanese, Korean, and Chinese tourists, and with over 20 large hotels, a DFS Galleria, Pleasure Island aquarium, SandCastle Las Vegas shows and other shopping and entertainment features in its chief tourism city of Tumon. It is a relatively short flight from Asia compared to Hawaii, with hotels and golf courses catering to tourists. About 90 percent of tourists to Guam are Japanese. Significant sources of revenue include duty-free designer shopping outlets, and the American-style malls: Micronesia Mall, Guam Premium Outlets, and the Agana Shopping Center.
The economy had been stable since 2000 due to increased tourism, mainly from Japan, but took a recent downturn along with the rest of Asia. It is expected to stabilize when U.S. Marine personnel and operations currently in Okinawa (appr. 8000, along with their 10,000 dependents) will transfer to Guam sometime in 2007-2008. Guam has a 14% unemployment rate, and the government suffered a $314 million shortfall in 2003.
The Compact of Free Association between the United States, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands was signed in 1982, and ratified in 1986. It accorded the former entities of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands a political status of "free association" with the United States. The Compact was an agreement to which Guam was not a party. Over the years, it was claimed by some in Guam that the territory has had to bear the brunt of this agreement in the form of public assistance programs and public education for those from the regions involved, but was never compensated by the federal government for its expenditures.

Economy

Main articles: Communications in Guam and Transportation in Guam Transportation and communications
Guam exemplifies the effects of bioinvasion.

Ecological issues
Thought to be a stowaway on a U.S. military transport near the end of World War II, the slightly venomous—but rather harmless—brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) came to Guam and killed virtually all of the native bird population on an island that has one native specie of snake, which is blind; this snake has no natural predators on the island. Although some studies have suggested a high density of the brown tree snake, residents rarely see these snakes. Prodigious climbers, the snakes were blamed for frequent blackouts in the 1980s by shorting across lines and transformers.

Other invasive animal species
Invading animal species are not the only threat to Guam's native flora. Tinangaja, a virus affecting coconut palms, was first observed on the island in 1917 when copra production was still a major part of Guam's economy. Though coconut plantations no longer exist on the island, the dead and infected trees that have resulted from the epidemic are seen throughout the forests of Guam. Also during the past century, the dense forests of northern Guam have been largely replaced by thick tangan tangan brush (Leucaena-native to the Americas). Much of Guam's foliage was lost during World War II. In 1947, the U.S. military introduced tangan tangan by seeding the island from the air to prevent erosion. In southern Guam, non-native grass species also dominate much of the landscape.

Threats to indigenous plants
Wildfires plague the forested ("boonie" or "jungle") areas of Guam every dry season despite the island's humid climate. Most fires are man-caused with 80 percent resulting from arson.

Wildfires
As a vacation spot for scuba divers, efforts have been made to protect Guam's coral reef habitats from pollution, eroded silt, and overfishing that have led to decreased fish populations. In recent years the Department of Agriculture, Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources has established several new marine preserves where fish populations are monitored by biologists.
Whitespotted boxfish (Ostracion meleagris)
Royal angelfish (Pygoplites diacanthus)

Aquatic preserves

Education
See also: List of Guam schools
The Guam Public School System [1] serves the entire island of Guam. In 2000, 32,000 students attended Guam's public schools.
In 1998, the U.S. Department of Defense opened schools for children of American military personnel. DoDEA schools had an attendance of 2,500 in 2000. The four schools operated by DoDEA are Andersen Elementary School, Andersen Middle School, McCool Elementary/Middle School, and Guam High School. [2]

Primary and secondary schools
The University of Guam, Guam Community College, and Pacific Islands Bible College offer courses in higher education.

Colleges and universities

List of radio stations in Guam
Scouting in Guam
Guam Police Department
History of Guam See also

Government

Marianas Variety "Guam's only true independent news source"
Pacific Daily News, A Gannett Newspaper
KUAM, Guam's Primary News Channel News

allthingsguam A Guam History resource--virtual textbook, virtual workbook and more
Guampedia from the Guam Humanities Council and the University of Guam
Open Directory Project - Guam directory category
U.S. Library of Congress - Portals to the World: Guam
The World Factbook on Guam Military

Guam Visitors Bureau
Guam Travel Guide from Unearth Travel – Creative Commons Travel Wiki