This article describes the geography of French Polynesia.
- Location
- Oceania, archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, about half way between South America and Australia
- Geographic coordinates
- 15°00′S 140°00′W / 15°S 140°W / -15; -140
- Map references
- Oceania
- Area
-
- Total: 4,167 km² (Around 130 islands)
- Land: 3,827 km²
- Water: 340 km²
- Land boundaries
- 0 km
- Coastline
- 2,525 km
- Maritime claims
-
- Exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
- Territorial sea: 12 nm
- Climate
- Tropical, but moderate
- Terrain
- Mixture of rugged high islands and low islands with reefs
- Elevation extremes
-
- Lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
- Highest point: Mont Orohena ( Tahiti ) 2,241 m
- Natural resources
- Timber, fish, cobalt, hydropower
- Land use
-
- Arable land: 0.75%
- Permanent crops: 5.5%
- Other: 93.75% (2005)
- Irrigated land
- 10 km2 (2003)
- Natural hazards
- Occasional cyclonic storms in January
- Environment - current issues
- NA
- Geography - note
- Includes five archipelagoes; Makatea in French Polynesia is one of the three great phosphate rock islands in the Pacific Ocean - the others are Banaba (Ocean Island) in Kiribati and Nauru
Famous quotes containing the words geography of, geography and/or french:
“The California fever is not likely to take us off.... There is neither romance nor glory in digging for gold after the manner of the pictures in the geography of diamond washing in Brazil.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“At present cats have more purchasing power and influence than the poor of this planet. Accidents of geography and colonial history should no longer determine who gets the fish.”
—Derek Wall (b. 1965)
“In comparison to the French Revolution, the American Revolution has come to seem a parochial and rather dull event. This, despite the fact that the American Revolution was successful—realizing the purposes of the revolutionaries and establishing a durable political regime—while the French Revolution was a resounding failure, devouring its own children and leading to an imperial despotism, followed by an eventual restoration of the monarchy.”
—Irving Kristol (b. 1920)