| Marutea Sud | |
| Map: | French Polynesia |
| Location: | Pacific Ocean |
| Archipelago: | Tuamotus |
| Area Km2: | 112 |
| Area Footnotes: | (lagoon) 12km² (above water) |
| Length Km: | 20 |
| Width Km: | 8 |
| Country: | France |
| Country Admin Divisions Title: | Overseas collectivity |
| Country Admin Divisions: | French Polynesia |
| Country Admin Divisions Title 2: | Commune |
| Country Admin Divisions 2: | Gambier Islands |
| Country Admin Divisions Title 1: | Administrative subdivision |
| Country Admin Divisions 1: | Tuamotus |
| Country Largest City: | Auorotini |
| Population: | 245[1] |
| Population As Of: | 2016 |
Marutea Atoll (Marutea Sud), also known as Lord Hood Island, Marutea-i-runga, and Nuku-nui, is an atoll in the far southeast of the Tuamotu group of French Polynesia. It lies in the east-northeast part of the Gambier (commune), about 72 km northeast from Maria Atoll.
Marutea Atoll is irregular in shape and bound by a reef broken by passes into the 112km2 lagoon. It is 20abbr=onNaNabbr=on long with a maximum width of 8km (05miles) and a land area of approximately 12km2. Its islands are low and flat and the main village, Auorotini, is located at the northern end of the atoll. It is populated by ex Gambier Islanders looking for pearls and maintaining the pearl farms on the atoll.
Marutea Sud should not be confused with Marutea Nord located in the western area of the Tuamotu Archipelago at 17˚ 07' S, 143˚ 11' W.
The first recorded European to sight this atoll was Spanish explorer Pedro Fernández de Quirós on 4 February 1606. He called it San Telmo. Other Spanish names were San Blas, given by de Quiros' captain Diego de Prado y Tovar, and Corral de Agua is found in some contemporary charts (in Spanish, water corral).[2] Marutea was later explored by Edward Edwards, while he was searching for the mutineers of in 1791. Edwards renamed it "Lord Hood".
According to Russian Admiral Adam Johann von Krusenstern Marutea was once inhabited by the ancient Polynesians. British mariner Frederick William Beechey found a stone-walled hut upon it in 1825.
In 1984 Marutea Atoll was bought by Robert Wan, the main Tahitian black pearl trader, in order to engage in cultured black pearl farming.[3]
A private airfield was built in 1993.
Administratively Marutea Sud belongs to the commune of the Gambier (commune).