The Mariana Islands consists of a chain of the fourteen islands in the Pacific: the Northern Marianas and Guam.

Guam is an unincorporated territory of the United States of America.

The Mariana Islands belong to an area in the Pacific known as Micronesia. (The islands of the Pacific are usually divided into three areas: Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia)

Micronesia includes the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Palau, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

The Mariana Islands are in the vicinity of the Marianas Trench which is 11,034m at its deepest point. This is the lowest point in the world.

Guam is the largest of the Mariana Islands.

The highest point in Guam is Mount Lamlam (406 m).

Settlement in the Mariana Islands (the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam) dates back around three and a half thousand years.

It is thought that early migrants to the Marianas, known as the Chamarro, were from Southeast Asia.

Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer in the service of Spain, landed at Umatac Bay, Guam, in 1521.

Jesuit missionaries arrived on Guam in 1668.

Spain claimed the Mariana Islands in the sixteenth century.

The Spanish named the Mariana Islands after Queen Mariana, the mother of Charles II of Spain.

Guam was ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Paris in 1898 at the end of the Spanish American War. (The Northern Mariana Islands were sold to Germany).

The Japanese captured Guam during the Second World War. They occupied the island between 1941 and 1944.

The US military base on Guam is one of the most important American bases in the Pacific.

Climate change is expected to change many aspects of life in Guam. Rising sea levels affect freshwater resources and adversely affect coral reef ecosystems. As well as flooding, typhoons are predicted to be more severe.