Nauru Geography Profile 2008

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

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% (2005)

Irrigated land

NA

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, Whaling
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