A short, unused, and unmaintained runway and a portion of one building, both from a former United States Coast Guard LORAN station, are located on the island.

Kure Atoll, in addition to being the nesting grounds for tens of thousands of seabirds, has recorded several vagrant terrestrial birds, including snow bunting, eyebrowed thrush, brambling, olive-backed pipit, black kite, Steller's sea eagle and Chinese sparrowhawk.

Kure is seasonally inhabited by small crews of two to eight volunteers and biologists who work to restore and manage the native ecosystem.

The nearest feature to the west, but below sea level is the Hancock bank, and many seamounts that are continuation of the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain continue as it turns to the northwest: these are all submerged, and Kure is the farthest west and north islands of the Hawaiian chain above sea level in the present day.

[3][4] It consists of a 6-mile-wide (9.7 km) nearly circular barrier reef surrounding a shallow lagoon and several sand islets.

[8] Green Island has a wide variety of vegetation including groves of Beach Naupaka (Scaevola taccada), which are a popular habitat for birds.

As Kure continues to be slowly carried along to the northwest by the motion of the Pacific Plate, it will move into waters too cool for coral and coralline algae growth to keep up with isostatic subsidence of the mountain.

[18] The Parker had shipwrecked in September 1842 and having lived at Kure Atoll, many of the crew were finally rescued on April 16, 1843, with the remainder taken off on May 2, 1843.

[18] Many crews were stranded on Kure Atoll after being shipwrecked on the surrounding reefs and had to survive on the local seals, turtles, and birds.

The King ordered that a crude house be built on the island, with tanks for holding water and provisions for any other unfortunates who might be cast away there.

A crew of five sailed the captain's gig to the island of Kauai, but only 1 survived the difficult month-long voyage.

[17] The vessel Dunnottar Castle shipwrecked in 1886, and the crew was able to reach Kauai eventually; however, some lives were lost.

[17] Largely neglected for most of its history, during World War II Kure was routinely visited by U.S. Navy patrols from nearby Midway to ensure that the Japanese were not using it to refuel submarines or flying boats from submarine-tankers for attacks elsewhere in the Hawaiian chain.

During the Battle of Midway, a Japanese Nakajima B5N "Kate" bomber, operating from aircraft carrier Hiryū, piloted by Lieutenant Kikuchi Rokurō, and which had been involved in the initial Japanese attack on Midway's US installations, crash-landed near Kure after being damaged by US fighters.

[9] In 1959 zig-zag stripes were cut through the groves of Scaevola bushes to make habitat space for albatrosses.

[25] Kure is located within a major current which washes up debris from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, such as fishing nets and large numbers of cigarette lighters, on the island.

These pose threats to the local animals, especially birds, whose skeletons are frequently found with plastic in the stomach cavity.

[6][26] On October 16, 1998, the longline fishing vessel Paradise Queen II ran aground on the eastern edge of Green Island of Kure Atoll, spilling approximately 4,000 gallons of diesel fuel before recovery operations could commence.

The long-term impact of this and other wrecks within the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) highlight the dangers to sensitive habitats in the area.

To help ensure their protection, the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument was designated a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) in 2008 by the International Maritime Organization.

A short coral runway was built on the island to support Coast Guard operations,[7] but it was abandoned and is currently unusable.

[35] The research dive studying the wreck was featured in the book A Civil War Gunboat in Pacific Waters: Life on Board USS Saginaw.

[38] In the 2020s, removing ghost nets and marine debris from Kure and other northwest Hawaiian islands remains a big concern, which are known to endanger wildlife and pollute environment.

[39] Because of its particularly remote location, Kure Atoll has been the scene of several amateur radio DX expeditions, or DX-peditions.

[40] They were briefly deleted from the DXCC list and had to be re-added after a review, due to a legal change of the overall regions status.

[46] Called LORAN (short for LOng RAnge Navigation), the base was operated by the U.S. Coast Guard and supported the LORAN-C system.

This land-based electronic navigation aid helped ships and aircraft locate themselves on the Earth's surface.

Kure Atoll features a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw) with high year-round temperatures.