PARLAMENT OF NAURU
MAP OF NAURU
IMAGE SATELITE OF NAURU ISLAND| 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. | |
| Location: | Oceania, island in the South Pacific Ocean, south of the Marshall Islands |
| Geographic coordinates: | 0 32 S, 166 55 E |
| Area: | total: 21 sq km land: 21 sq km water: 0 sq km Size comparison: about 0.1 times the size of Washington, DC |
| Land Boundaries: | 0 km |
| Coastline: | 30 km |
| Maritime claims: | territorial sea: 12 nm contiguous zone: 24 nm exclusive economic zone: 200 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% (2009) |
| Irrigated land: | NA |
| Natural hazards: | periodic droughts |
| Current Environment 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 |
| International Environment Agreements: | party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Whaling signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements |
