Tepoto, also known as Te Poto, Toho, or Pukapoto, is a coral

Coral

Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...

 island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

. It is the northwesternmost of the Disappointment Islands

Disappointment Islands

The Disappointment Islands are a subgroup of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia. They are located towards the northeast, away from the main Tuamotu group....

, in the Tuamotu Archipelago

Tuamotus

The Tuamotus or the Tuamotu Archipelago are a chain of islands and atolls in French Polynesia. They form the largest chain of atolls in the world, spanning an area of the Pacific Ocean roughly the size of Western Europe...

. Despite being often referred to as "atoll", Tepoto is not a typical Tuamotu atoll, but a single separate island without lagoon. It is located at the limit of the Tuamotu archipelago; the closest land is Napuka

Napuka

Napuka, or Pukaroa, is a small coral atoll in the Disappointment Islands, in the north-eastern part of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia. It is located only 15 km to the southeast of Tepoto Nord, its nearest neighbor, forming a small group...

, which lies 16 km to the southeast.

Tepoto is 2.6 km long and 800 m wide; it has an area of 4 km². This island is sometimes called Tepoto Nord in French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, to avoid confusion with Tepoto

Tepoto (South)

Tepoto Atoll , or Ti Poto, is a small atoll of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia. It is located 44 km southwest of Makemo Atoll.Tepoto Atoll is almost round in shape. It measures 3.8 km in diameter...

 Atoll (Tepoto Sud) 400 km (240 mi.) to the southwest, in the Raeffsky Islands

Raeffsky Islands

The Raeffsky Islands or Raevski Islands is a subgroup of the Tuamotu group in French Polynesia. They are located roughly in the central area of the main Tuamotu atoll cluster...

 of central Tuamotu. An obsolete name is Otuho.

According to the 2002 census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

, its population was 54 inhabitants (there were 67 in 1983). The primary village is Tehekega. There is a 5m wide road running round the whole island.

History

The first recorded European to arrive to Tepoto Nord was explorer John Byron

John Byron

Vice Admiral The Hon. John Byron, RN was a Royal Navy officer. He was known as Foul-weather Jack because of his frequent bad luck with weather.-Early career:...

 in 1765.
He named Napuka and Tepoto "Disappointment Islands" because the natives were of a hostile disposition.

Administration

Tepoto Nord belongs to the commune of Napuka. The commune of Napuka consists of the atolls of Napuka and Tepoto Nord.