Kiribati - A Remote Island Nation
Key point: Kiribati is a remote, low-lying island
nation scattered across vast expanses of the equatorial Pacific
Kiribati is an equatorial Pacific island nation of 33 coral atolls. These islands collectively include only 811 sq km of land, although the largest of which (Kiritimati, or “Christmas”) makes up almost half. By comparison, all of the land in the nation represents roughly four times the area of the size of the city of Washington DC (not the suburbs).
These small islands occur in scattered across an enormous area, of over 3,500,000 sq km, just less than the contiguous United States (the “Lower 48”). Thus, although Kiribati is the only country in the world to include land all four hemispheres (northern, southern, eastern, and western), only 0.02% of its economic zone is land.
In addition representing small dots in the ocean, the islands are low ... very low. The highest point on most islands is no more than 3 m above sea level. For some sense of scale, if basketball star LaBron James stood at sea level on the beach, the highest point on most of the islands would be only 1 m (3 ft.) above his head. The basketball rims he dunks on are 3 m high.
Yet, it is really in the middle of nowhere. To get to the capital (Tarawa) from the mainland U.S. requires an 11 hour flight from LA to Fiji, the nearest major connecting airport, then a 3 hour flight north to Tarawa – roughly the distance from Kansas City to Los Angeles.
The nation includes three island chains: the Gilberts, the Line, and the Phoenix chains. The total north/south extent is 2,050 km (roughly the distance from Boston to Miami). Kiritimati (in the east) is about 3,780 km from Banaba (formerly Ocean Island) in the west (just a bit less than as the distance from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, or London to Cairo).
The native people of Kiribati are called I-Kiribati. Ethnically, the I-Kiribati are Micronesians.
Kiribati is an equatorial Pacific island nation of 33 coral atolls. These islands collectively include only 811 sq km of land, although the largest of which (Kiritimati, or “Christmas”) makes up almost half. By comparison, all of the land in the nation represents roughly four times the area of the size of the city of Washington DC (not the suburbs).
These small islands occur in scattered across an enormous area, of over 3,500,000 sq km, just less than the contiguous United States (the “Lower 48”). Thus, although Kiribati is the only country in the world to include land all four hemispheres (northern, southern, eastern, and western), only 0.02% of its economic zone is land.
In addition representing small dots in the ocean, the islands are low ... very low. The highest point on most islands is no more than 3 m above sea level. For some sense of scale, if basketball star LaBron James stood at sea level on the beach, the highest point on most of the islands would be only 1 m (3 ft.) above his head. The basketball rims he dunks on are 3 m high.
Yet, it is really in the middle of nowhere. To get to the capital (Tarawa) from the mainland U.S. requires an 11 hour flight from LA to Fiji, the nearest major connecting airport, then a 3 hour flight north to Tarawa – roughly the distance from Kansas City to Los Angeles.
The nation includes three island chains: the Gilberts, the Line, and the Phoenix chains. The total north/south extent is 2,050 km (roughly the distance from Boston to Miami). Kiritimati (in the east) is about 3,780 km from Banaba (formerly Ocean Island) in the west (just a bit less than as the distance from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, or London to Cairo).
The native people of Kiribati are called I-Kiribati. Ethnically, the I-Kiribati are Micronesians.