Geography of French Polynesia

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

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    Where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and Boston Bay, you think paltry places, and the ear loves names of foreign and classic topography. But here we are; and, if we tarry a little, we may come to learn that here is best. See to it, only, that thyself is here;—and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels, and the Supreme Being, shall not absent from the chamber where thou sittest.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Ktaadn, near which we were to pass the next day, is said to mean “Highest Land.” So much geography is there in their names.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    In most other modern societies working mothers are not put under these special and exaggerated pressures. For example, French and English mothers often prefer to breast-feed their babies, but they do not feel that their womanhood is at stake if they fail to do so. Nor does anyone else.
    Sylvia Ann Hewitt (20th century)