Kiribati: Located in 4 hemispheres and unique GMT+14 timezone
Posted By RichC on August 2, 2022
Learned a few interesting geographic facts about the nation of Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean from Brilliantmaps, Reddit and of course Wikipedia the other day and found the timezone oddity particularly interesting. The country is “the furthest ahead of Greenwich meantime at GMT +14, making it the first country in the world to ring-in the New Year. This was done to keep the working week the same for entire country and not have it split over the international date line.”
Here are 10 more interesting facts on the Republic of Kiribati (source Wikipedia):
- Located in the central Pacific Ocean, Kiribati is made up of 33 atolls and reef islands, only 21 of which are inhabited.
- It has only 103,500 people making it the 197th most populous country on earth.
- Over 90% of the population lives on the Gilbert Islands, with nearly 50% living on Tarawa.
- The country includes Christmas Island which is written as Kiritimati in the Kiribati language but pronounced the same as Christmas.
- Kiritimati is the largest coral atoll in the world and makes up about half of Kiribati’s land area.
- Tarawa Atoll and others Gilbert islands were invaded by the Japanese in December 1941 and liberated by the Americans 2 years later in November 1943 in the Battle of Tarawa.
- The country only gained its full independence from the United Kingdom on July 12th, 1979.
- Most of the islands and atolls are only 1-2 meters (3-6 feet) above sea level, with the highest point just 81 m; (266 ft) above sea level.
- Two small uninhabited islets, Tebua Tarawa and Abanuea, disappeared below the sea in 1999.
- To counter the very real risk of the entire country disappearing beneath the waves within the next 50 years, Kiribati is in talks to buy 5,000 acres from Fiji where they can start relocating people.
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