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: Area - comparative: Land boundaries: Coastline: Maritime claims: Climate: Terrain: Elevation extremes: Natural resources: Land use: Irrigated land: Natural hazards: Environment - current issues: Environment - international agreements: Geography - note:
total: 21 sq km
[see also: Area - total country ranks ]
country comparison to the world: 240
land:
21 sq km
water:
0 sq km
about 0.1 times the size of Washington, DC
0 km
[see also: Land boundaries country ranks ]
30 km
[see also: Coastline country ranks ]
territorial sea: 12 nm
contiguous zone:
24 nm
exclusive economic zone:
200 nm
tropical with a monsoonal pattern; rainy season (November to February)
sandy beach rises to fertile ring around raised coral reefs with phosphate plateau in center
lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
[see also: Elevation extremes - lowest point country ranks ]
highest point:
unnamed elevation along plateau rim 61 m
phosphates, fish
arable land: 0%
[see also: Land use - arable land country ranks ]
permanent crops:
20%
other:
80% (2011)
NA
[see also: Irrigated land country ranks ]
periodic droughts
limited natural freshwater 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
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
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