The tiny country of 14,000 people was one of the world’s major sources of phosphate for most of the 20th century, bringing prosperity to such levels that Nauru briefly possessed the world’s highest per-capita income during the late 1960s and early 70s before the phosphate reserves were nearly exhausted. Dominating the centre of the island is the phosphate storage facility.

A short railway carts the phosphate down to the phosphate processing plant in Aiwo District, where the Nauru Phosphate Corporation operates two cantilevers for transferring phosphate to ships.

80% percent of Nauru’s land area has been stripped in the name of phosphate mining, leaving the interior of the island covered in jagged limestone pinnacles.

Courtesy: U.S. Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program.

With the end of phosphate mining imminent, Nauru has had to turn to unorthodox methods of generating income. From 2001 to 2008, it rented out its national football stadium to Australia as a detention centre for political asylum seekers. The stadium/asylum still shows up on Google imagery:

The name ‘Nauru’ is derived from the Nauruan term meaning ‘I go to the beach’, and the best beach is located on the east shore at Anibare Bay. At the south end of the bay is the Meneñ Hotel, one of only two hotels on the island (and perhaps more importantly, the island’s only pub). On the west side of Nauru, lushly-vegetated Bunda Lagoon is the country’s only lake.

The only way in and out of Nauru other than by ocean-going ship is via the international airport in Yaren District, which juts out into the ocean on reclaimed land.

On the south side of the airport is where one can find the major government buildings of Nauru, including the parliament building. Nauru is the only independent country with no officially designated capital.

You can earn more about the world’s smallest republic (quite a lot more given how small Nauru is) at Wikipedia.

Locations: Micronesia / Categories: Aircraft, Buildings, Islands, Natural Landmarks

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Although they gained independence from the US in 1986 a large part of the Marshall Islands are and were used for missile testing. Most famously, Bikini Atoll, from which the swimming garment took its name because it would cause a burst of excitement like an atomic bomb (but without the forced evacuations and nuclear contamination).

These two giant craters are in the Eniwetok Atoll, the Western crater was filled with nuclear waste and then paved over with concrete.

The Kwajalein Atoll is the location of the US’s Reagan Test Site, so many of the islands have helicopter pads and various other military goings on. Here’s a concrete barge intentionally sunk as a breakwater on Ennylabegan.

There’s loads more to see on the Marshall Islands, but I’ve been browsing around them for two days now and Island Week is almost over. I’d suggest scanning around for the hundreds of beautiful beaches and tiny cities, there’s even a sunken German warship in there somewhere…

Wikipedia: Republic_of_the_Marshall_Islands, Reagan Test Site, Bikini Atoll, Eniwetok Atoll, Kwajalein Atoll

Thanks: Many people, especially the Gearth Community

Locations: Micronesia / Categories: Islands, Natural Landmarks, Watercraft

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