Nicaragua:
Geography

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Other pages in this profile of Nicaragua:
People, Government, Economy, Communications & Transportation, Military & Transnational Issues.


Background	Definition The Pacific coast of Nicaragua was settled as a Spanish colony from Panama in the early 16th century. Independence from Spain was declared in 1821 and the country became an independent republic in 1838. Britain occupied the Caribbean Coast in the first half of the 19th century, but gradually ceded control of the region in subsequent decades. Violent opposition to governmental manipulation and corruption spread to all classes by 1978 and resulted in a short-lived civil war that brought the Marxist Sandinista guerrillas to power in 1979. Nicaraguan aid to leftist rebels in El Salvador caused the US to sponsor anti-Sandinista contra guerrillas through much of the 1980s. Free elections in 1990, 1996, and 2001, saw the Sandinistas defeated, but voting in 2006 announced the return of former Sandinista President Daniel ORTEGA Saavedra. Nicaragua's infrastructure and economy - hard hit by the earlier civil war and by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 - are slowly being rebuilt.

Location	Definition Central America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean, between Costa Rica and Honduras
Geographic coordinates	Definition 13 00 N, 85 00 W
Map references	Definition Central America and the Caribbean
Area	Definition - World rank and map total: 129,494 sq km land: 120,254 sq km water: 9,240 sq km
Area - comparative	Definition slightly smaller than the state of New York
Land boundaries	Definition total: 1,231 km border countries: Costa Rica 309 km, Honduras 922 km
Coastline	Definition 910 km
Maritime claims	Definition territorial sea: 12 nm contiguous zone: 24 nm continental shelf: natural prolongation
Climate	Definition tropical in lowlands, cooler in highlands
Terrain	Definition extensive Atlantic coastal plains rising to central interior mountains; narrow Pacific coastal plain interrupted by volcanoes
Elevation extremes	Definition lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m highest point: Mogoton 2,438 m
Natural resources	Definition gold, silver, copper, tungsten, lead, zinc, timber, fish
Land use	Definition - World rank and map arable land: 14.81% permanent crops: 1.82% other: 83.37% (2005)
Irrigated land	Definition 610 sq km (2003)
Total renewable water resources	Definition 196.7 cu km (2000)
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural)	Definition total: 1.3 cu km/yr (15%/2%/83%) per capita: 237 cu m/yr (2000)
Natural hazards	Definition destructive earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides; extremely susceptible to hurricanes
Environment - current issues	Definition deforestation; soil erosion; water pollution
Environment - international agreements	Definition party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification
Geography - note	Definition largest country in Central America; contains the largest freshwater body in Central America, Lago de Nicaragua

Nicaragua: Geography

Nicaragua:
Geography