The World Factbook (1990)/Jarvis Island
Jarvis Island (territory of the US)
_Jarvis_Island.jpg)
See regional map X
Geography
Total area: 4.5 km²; land area: 4.5 km²
Comparative area: about 7.5 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC
Land boundaries: none
Coastline: 8 km
Maritime claims:
- Contiguous zone: 12 nm
- Continental shelf: 200 m
- Extended economic zone: 200 nm
- Territorial sea: 12 nm
Climate: tropical; scant rainfall, constant wind, burning sun
Terrain: sandy, coral island surrounded by a narrow fringing reef
Natural resources: guano (deposits worked until late 1800s)
Land use: 0% arable land; 0% permanent crops; 0% meadows and pastures; 0% forest and woodland; 100% other
Environment: sparse bunch grass, prostrate vines, and low-growing shrubs; lacks fresh water; primarily a nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds, and marine wildlife; feral cats
Note: 2,090 km south of Honolulu in the South Pacific Ocean, just south of the Equator, about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands
People
Population: uninhabited
Note: Millersville settlement on western side of island occasionally used as a weather station from 1935 until World War II, when it was abandoned; reoccupied in 1957 during the International Geophysical Year by scientists who left in 1958; public entry is by special-use permit only and generally restricted to scientists and educators
Government
Long-form name: none (territory of the
US)
Type: unincorporated territory of the US administered by the Fish and Wildlife Service of the US Department of the Interior as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System
Economy
Overview: no economic activity
Communications
Ports: none; offshore anchorage only one
boat landing area in the middle of the
west coast and another near the southwest
corner of the island
Note: there is a day beacon near the middle of the west coast
Defense Forces
Note: defense is the responsibility of the
US; visited annually by the US Coast
Guard