Nauru:
Geography

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Background	The exact origins of the Nauruans are unclear, since their language does not resemble any other in the Pacific. The island was annexed by Germany in 1888 and its phosphate deposits began to be mined early in the 20th century by a German-British consortium. Nauru was occupied by Australian forces in World War I and subsequently became a League of Nations mandate. After the Second World War - and a brutal occupation by Japan - Nauru became a UN trust territory. It achieved its independence in 1968 and joined the UN in 1999 as the world's smallest independent republic.

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