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 Nauru Airport, Nauru
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
land: 21 sq km
water: 0 sq km
Area - comparative: about 0.1 times the size of Washington,
DC
Land boundaries: 0 km
Coastline: 30 km
Maritime claims:
exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm
territorial sea: 12 nm
Climate: tropical; monsoonal; 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
Land use:
arable land: 0%
permanent crops: 0%
permanent pastures: 0%
forests and woodland: 0%
other: 100% (1993 est.)
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 New Zealand
consortium - has left the central 90% of Nauru a wasteland and threatens
limited remaining land resources
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping
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
Background: Nauru's phosphate deposits began to be mined
early in the 20th century by a German-British consortium; the island
was occupied by Australian forces in World War I. Upon achieving
independence in 1968, Nauru became the smallest independent republic
in the world; it joined the UN in 1999.
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