| Geography and Climate |
Nauru is located in Oceania, island in the South Pacific Ocean, south of the Marshall Islands.
Area comparatively about 0.1 times the size of Washington, DC.
Climate is tropical; monsoonal; rainy season (November to February). Terrain consists of sandy beach rises to fertile ring around raised coral reefs with phosphate plateau in center. Elevation extreme has the lowest point in Pacific Ocean 0 m and highest point in unnamed location along plateau rim 61 m. Major natural resources are phosphates. Natural hazards are periodic droughts.
Environment—current issues: limited natural fresh water resources, roof storage tanks collect rainwater; 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.
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.
Ref. Anonymous, 1999 |