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" "If the storm maintains this intensity as forecast, it will make landfall as one of the top five strongest storms to strike western Japan on record," said Robert Speta, a typhoon expert who previously worked as a meteorologist in Japan. He said Nanmadol was the strongest tropical system anywhere on the planet so far this year."

On a remote Pacific island not much bigger than Manhattan, there are ancient pyramids built out of living coral. New evidence reveals that these tombs could be up to 700 years old — much older than experts had previously thought. The royal tombs are tucked away in an artificially built ancient city called Leluh just off the mainland of Kosrae, a Micronesian island. Leluh was home to Kosraean high chiefs (as well as some lower chiefs and commoners, too) from about 1250 until the mid-1800s, when foreign whalers, traders and missionaries started to arrive on the island. With impressive canals...

One of the oldest archaeological sites not on a heritage list, this Pacific state, like Easter Island, is an engineering marvel We zigzag slowly in our skiff around the shallow coral heads surrounding Pohnpei. The island, a little smaller than New York City, is part of the Federated States of Micronesia. It is nestled in a vast tapestry of coral reefs. Beyond the breakers, the Pacific stretches 5,578 miles to California. A stingray dashes in front of us, flying underwater like a butterfly alongside our bow. Our destination is Nan Madol, near the southern side of the island, the only...