page_title: Kiritimati
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Kiritimati / Geography
context_page_description: Kiritimati or Christmas Island is a Pacific Ocean coral atoll in the northern Line Islands. It is part of the Republic of Kiribati. Its Gilbertese name is the rendition of the English word "Christmas" according to its sounds, in which the combination ti is pronounced s, and the name is thus pronounced.
  The island has the greatest land area of any coral atoll in the world, about 388 square kilometres; its lagoon is roughly the same size. The atoll is about 150 km in perimeter, while the lagoon shoreline extends for over 48 km. Kiritimati comprises over 70% of the total land area of Kiribati, a country encompassing 33 Pacific atolls and islands.
  It lies 232 km north of the Equator, 2,160 km south of Honolulu, and 5,360 km from San Francisco. Kiritimati Island is in the world's farthest forward time zone, UTC+14, and is one of the first inhabited places on Earth to experience the New Year. Despite being 2,460 km east of the 180 meridian, a 1995 realignment of the International Date Line by the Republic of Kiribati moved Kiritimati to west of the dateline.
  Nuclear tests were conducted on and around Kiritimati by the United Kingdom in the late 1950s, and by the United States in 1962.
context_section_description: Kiritimati's roughly 320 km² (120 sq mi) lagoon opens to the sea in the northwest; Burgle Channel (the entrance to the lagoon) is divided into the northern Cook Island Passage and the southern South Passage. The southeastern part of the lagoon is partially dried out today; essentially, progressing SE from Burgle Channel, the 160 km² (62 sq mi) main lagoon gradually turns into a network of subsidiary lagoons, tidal flats, partially hypersaline brine ponds and salt pans, which as a whole has about the same area again as the main lagoon. Thus, the land and lagoon areas can only be given approximately, as no firm boundary exists between the main island body and the salt flats. Vaskess Bay is a large bay which extends along the southwest coast of Kiritimati Island.
  In addition to the main island, there are several smaller ones. Cook Island is part of the atoll proper but unconnected to the Kiritimati mainland. It is a sand/coral island of 19 ha (47 acres), divides Burgle Channel into the northern and the southern entrance, and has a large seabird colony. Islets (motus) in the lagoon include Motu Tabu (3.5 ha or 8.6 acres) with its Pisonia forest and the shrub-covered Motu Upua (also called Motu Upou or Motu Upoa, 19 ha or 47 acres) at the northern side, and Ngaontetaake (2.7 ha or 7 acres) at the eastern side.
  Joe's Hill (originally La colline de Joe) near Artemia Corners on the southeastern peninsula is the highest point on the atoll, at about 13 m (43 ft) ASL. On the northwestern peninsula for example, the land rises only to some 7 m (20 ft), which is still considerable for an atoll.
caption: 1977 nautical chart
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