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Guatemala Geography 2014

SOURCE: 2014 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK AND OTHER SOURCES











Guatemala Geography 2014
SOURCE: 2014 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK AND OTHER SOURCES


Page last updated on January 31, 2014

Location:
Central America, bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between El Salvador and Mexico, and bordering the Gulf of Honduras (Caribbean Sea) between Honduras and Belize

Geographic coordinates:
15 30 N, 90 15 W

Map references:
Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
total: 108,889 sq km
[see also: Area - total country ranks ]
country comparison to the world: 107
land: 107,159 sq km
water: 1,730 sq km

Area - comparative:
slightly smaller than Tennessee

Land boundaries:
total: 1,687 km
border countries: Belize 266 km, El Salvador 203 km, Honduras 256 km, Mexico 962 km
[see also: Land boundaries country ranks ]

Coastline:
400 km
[see also: Coastline country ranks ]

Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 12 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
continental shelf: 200 m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
tropical; hot, humid in lowlands; cooler in highlands

Terrain:
mostly mountains with narrow coastal plains and rolling limestone plateau

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
[see also: Elevation extremes - lowest point country ranks ]
highest point: Volcan Tajumulco 4,211 m
note: highest point in Central America

Natural resources:
petroleum, nickel, rare woods, fish, chicle, hydropower

Land use:
arable land: 13.78%
[see also: Land use - arable land country ranks ]
permanent crops: 8.68%
other: 77.55% (2011)

Irrigated land:
3,121 sq km (2003)
[see also: Irrigated land country ranks ]

Total renewable water resources:
111.3 cu km (2011)
[see also: Total renewable water resources country ranks ]

Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural):
total: 3.46 cu km/yr (15%/31%/54%)
[see also: Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural) - total country ranks ]
per capita: 259.1 cu m/yr (2006)

Natural hazards:
numerous volcanoes in mountains, with occasional violent earthquakes; Caribbean coast extremely susceptible to hurricanes and other tropical storms
volcanism: significant volcanic activity in the Sierra Madre range; Santa Maria (elev. 3,772 m) has been deemed a Decade Volcano by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior, worthy of study due to its explosive history and close proximity to human populations; Pacaya (elev. 2,552 m), which erupted in May 2010 causing an ashfall on Guatemala City and prompting evacuations, is one of the country's most active volcanoes with frequent eruptions since 1965; other historically active volcanoes include Acatenango, Almolonga, Atitlan, Fuego, and Tacana

Environment - current issues:
deforestation in the Peten rainforest; soil erosion; water pollution

Environment - international agreements:
party to: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
no natural harbors on west coast


NOTE: 1) The information regarding Guatemala on this page is re-published from the 2014 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Guatemala Geography 2014 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Guatemala Geography 2014 should be addressed to the CIA.
2) The rank that you see is the CIA reported rank, which may habe the following issues:
  a) They assign increasing rank number, alphabetically for countries with the same value of the ranked item, whereas we assign them the same rank.
  b) The CIA sometimes assignes counterintuitive ranks. For example, it assigns unemployment rates in increasing order, whereas we rank them in decreasing order






This page was last modified 06-Nov-14
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