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- Geography
-
- Total area: 1.6 km2
-
- Land area: 1.6 km2
-
- Comparative area: about 2.7 times the size of the Mall in
- Washington, DC
-
- Land boundaries: none
-
- Coastline: 6.4 km
-
- Maritime claims: -- Contiguous zone: 12 nm -- Continental shelf:
- 200 m (depth) -- Exclusive economic zone: 200 nm -- Territorial
- sea: 12 nm
-
- Disputes: none
-
- Climate: equatorial; scant rainfall, constant wind, burning sun
-
- Terrain: low-lying, nearly level, sandy, coral island
- surrounded by a narrow fringing reef; depressed central area
-
- Natural resources: guano (deposits worked until late 1800s)
-
- Land use: arable land 0%; permanent crops 0%; meadows and
- pastures 0%; forest and woodland 5%; other 95%
-
- Environment: almost totally covered with grasses, prostrate
- vines, and low-growing shrubs; small area of trees in the
- center; lacks fresh water; primarily a nesting, roosting, and
- foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds, and marine wildlife;
- feral cats
-
- Note: remote location 2,575 km southwest of Honolulu in the
- North Pacific Ocean, just north of the Equator, about halfway
- between Hawaii and Australia
-
-