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Location: Oceania, group of atolls and reefs in the North
Pacific Ocean, about one-half of the way from Hawaii to Papua New
Guinea
Geographic coordinates: 9 00 N, 168 00 E
Map references: Oceania
Area:
total: 181.3 sq km
land: 181.3 sq km
water: 0 sq km
note: includes the atolls of Bikini, Enewetak, and Kwajalein
Area - comparative: about the size of Washington, DC
Land boundaries: 0 km
Coastline: 370.4 km
Maritime claims:
contiguous zone: 24 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
territorial sea: 12 nm
Climate: wet season from May to November; hot and humid;
islands border typhoon belt
Terrain: low coral limestone and sand islands
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
highest point: unnamed location on Likiep 10 m
Natural resources: phosphate deposits, marine products,
deep seabed minerals
Land use:
arable land: 0%
permanent crops: 60%
permanent pastures: 0%
forests and woodland: 0%
other: 40%
Irrigated land: NA sq km
Natural hazards: occasional typhoons
Environment - current issues: inadequate supplies of potable
water
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol
Geography - note: two archipelagic island chains of 30 atolls
and 1,152 islands; Bikini and Enewetak are former US nuclear test
sites; Kwajalein, the famous World War II battleground, is now used
as a US missile test range
Background: After almost four decades under US administration
as the easternmost part of the UN Trust Territory of the Pacific
Islands, the Marshall Islands attained independence in 1986 under
a Compact of Free Association. Compensation claims continue as a
result of US nuclear testing on some of the islands between 1947
and 1962.
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