science

Pearson Reef

Pearson Reef is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Pearson Reef rather than just read about it. In short: Pearson Reef (Filipino: Bahura ng Hizon, Chinese: 毕生礁; pinyin: Bìshēng jiāo), called Phan Vinh Island (Vietnamese: đảo Phan Vinh) in Vietnam, is an atoll of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The atoll has been occupied by Vietnam since 1978.

Key takeaways

Pearson Reef belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Pearson Reef to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Pearson Reef from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Pearson Reef (Filipino: Bahura ng Hizon, Chinese: 毕生礁; pinyin: Bìshēng jiāo), called Phan Vinh Island (Vietnamese: đảo Phan Vinh) in Vietnam, is an atoll of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The atoll has been occupied by Vietnam since 1978. It is claimed by China (PRC), the Philippines, Vietnam, and Taiwan (ROC). With land reclaimed from the sea, by 2025 the total area of the islands will be 117 hectares (290 acres). Phan Vinh A: 0.61 km² and Phan Vinh B: 0.56 km².

Characteristic

Pearson Reef is about 9 km long and about 1.8 km wide and in the middle there is an enclosed lagoon 3 to 6 metres (9.8 to 19.7 ft) deep. The total area of this coral reef is 14.75 square kilometres (5.70 sq mi), of which the area of the reef is 2.72 square kilometres (1.05 sq mi). To the northeast of Pearson Reef is a floating island, named Phan Vinh Island (đảo Phan Vinh), formerly known as Hon Sap Island (Đảo Hòn Sập) in Vietnam. The island has an annular shape. It has a length of 290 metres (950 ft), a width of 140 metres (460 ft) and lies on a 4.9 nautical miles (9.1 km; 5.6 mi) long coral reef that also follows the northeast-southwest axis. The island has a natural area of about 2.4 hectares (5.9 acres). The island belongs to the Spratly cluster (cụm Trường Sa) of the Spratly Island and is located about 14.5 nautical miles (26.9 km; 16.7 mi) northwest of Alison Reef (Toc Tan Reef, đá Tốc Tan). In October 2021, Vietnam started dredging and expanding the accretion at 3 features: Phan Vinh Island, Namyit Island and Sand Cay Island. According to images taken by the Sentinel-2 satellite (ESA), by June 2023, Phan Vinh Island has been expanded with an area of about 50 hectares (120 acres) of floating land, 1.6 kilometres (0.99 mi) long and 600 metres (2,000 ft) wide with a lock in the middle of the island. At the southwest corner of this reef, there is a smaller island called Phan Vinh B Island (đảo Phan Vinh B) located to the west about 3.3 nautical miles (6.1 km; 3.8 mi) west-southwest of Phan Vinh Island, with coordinates 8°57′33″N 113°39′12″E. On Phan Vinh B Islet, there are 3 durable houses (built many years ago) that are linked together by a wide concrete road and have a helipad for helicopters to take off and land in case of rescue missions.

Environment and infrastructure Phan Vinh Island does not have a fresh water source, but there are some green trees such as putat, beach casuarina, bayhops, portia tree, banyan, etc. On Phan Vinh Island, there are ways of civil works such as wind and solar power systems, cultural houses, clinics, etc. There is a religious establishment on the island, Vinh Phuc Pagoda (chùa Vinh Phúc). Vietnam has built Radar Station 44 (T44) on Phan Vinh Island, which can be observed within a radius of 300 kilometres (190 mi) of the entire Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

History Pearson Reef was first observed by Pearson, commander of the Bahamian, in 1843. Before 1978, Phan Vinh Island was named Hon Sap Island by Vietnam. At the beginning of 1978, the situation in the Spratly Islands was complicated, the Philippines sent troops to occupy An Nhon reef (formerly known as Lan Can reef), some countries sent many ships to the Truong Sa archipelago. The Vietnamese Navy decided to quickly organize forces to keep the islands of Central London Reef, Sin Cowe East Island, Phan Vinh Island and Amboyna Cay. On March 30, 1978, a detachment of 31 people from Regiment 146, Naval Region 4, commanded by Second Lieutenant Vũ Xuân Hà, accompanied by Regiment Commander Cao Ánh Đăng aboard ship 680 of Division 128 was stationed Phan Vinh Island. "Phan Vinh Island" as Vietnamese call it, comes from the name of the Hero of the People's Armed Forces, Lieutenant Nguyễn Phan Vinh (1933 – 1968, native of Dien Ban, Quang Nam), who was the captain of many numberless ship in the Vietnam War. In 2022, news reports indicated that the Vietnamese government was engaged in dredging and landfill operations to expand the size of Pearson Reef (Phan Vinh Island), Namyit Island, and Sand Cay. The total area of the land reclaimed of Phan Vinh Island in 2024, in this operations to be 58 hectares. From October 2023, Vietnam will begin to expand Phan Vinh B Island. In the future, the area of this island may exceed Phan Vinh Island.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pearson Reef

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pearson Reef claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Pearson Reef before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Pearson Reef ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Pearson Reef

In research: Pearson Reef appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Pearson Reef in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Pearson Reef is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Asia geography stubs, Atolls of Vietnam, Atolls of the Spratly Islands, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pearson Reef outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Pearson Reef in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pearson Reef means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Pearson Reef out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pearson Reef in simple terms?

Why does Pearson Reef matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Pearson Reef?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Pearson Reef.