Baker Island ( /ˈbeɪkər/) is an uninhabited atoll located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean about 3,100 kilometers (1,700 nmi; 1,900 mi) southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia, and is a possession of the United States. Its nearest neighbor is Howland Island, 68 km (37 nmi; 42 mi) to the north.
Located at 0°11′41″N 176°28′46″W / 0.19472°N 176.47944°W / 0.19472; -176.47944. the island covers 2.1 km2 (0.81 sq mi), with 4.9 km (3.04 mi) of coastline. The climate is equatorial, with little rainfall, constant wind, and strong sunshine. The terrain is low-lying and sandy: a coral island surrounded by a narrow fringing reef with a depressed central area devoid of a lagoon with its highest point being 8 meters (26 ft) above sea level.
The island now forms the Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge and is an unincorporated and unorganized territory of the U.S. Its defense is the responsibility of the United States; though uninhabited, it is visited annually by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For statistical purposes, Baker is grouped with the United States Minor Outlying Islands.
Read more about Baker Island: Description, History, LORAN Station Baker, Flora and Fauna, National Wildlife Refuge, Ruins and Artifacts, Gallery
Famous quotes containing the words baker and/or island:
“It seems to be a law in American life that whatever enriches us anywhere except in the wallet inevitably becomes uneconomic.”
—Russell Baker (b. 1925)
“I ... would rather be in dependance on Great Britain, properly limited, than on any nation upon earth, or than on no nation. But I am one of those too who rather than submit to the right of legislating for us assumed by the British parliament, and which late experience has shewn they will so cruelly exercise, would lend my hand to sink the whole island in the ocean.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)