Location: | Oceania, island in the South Pacific Ocean, south of the Marshall Islands |
| Geographic coordinates: | 0 32 S, 166 55 E |
| Map references: | Oceania |
| Area: | total: 21 sq km
water: 0 sq km
land: 21 sq km |
| Area - comparative: | about 0.1 times the size of Washington, DC |
| Land boundaries: | 0 km |
| Coastline: | 30 km |
| Maritime claims: | territorial sea: 12 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
contiguous zone: 24 nm |
| Climate: | tropical with a monsoonal pattern; rainy season (November to February) |
| Terrain: | sandy beach rises to fertile ring around raised coral reefs with phosphate plateau in center |
| Elevation extremes: | lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
highest point: unnamed location along plateau rim 61 m |
| Natural resources: | phosphates, fish |
| Land use: | arable land: 0%
permanent crops: 0%
other: 100% (2001) |
| Irrigated land: | NA sq km |
| Natural hazards: | periodic droughts |
| Environment - current issues: | limited natural fresh water resources, roof storage tanks collect rainwater, but mostly dependent on a single, aging desalination plant; intensive phosphate mining during the past 90 years - mainly by a UK, Australia, and NZ consortium - has left the central 90% of Nauru a wasteland and threatens limited remaining land resources |
| Environment - international agreements: | party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements |
| Geography - note: | Nauru is one of the three great phosphate rock islands in the Pacific Ocean - the others are Banaba (Ocean Island) in Kiribati and Makatea in French Polynesia; only 53 km south of Equator
Source: CIA World Factbook
|
