Nauru
"The country that ate itself"Known as the country that ate itself, Nauru is - along with the islands of Banaba (Ocean Island), in Kiribati, and Makatea, in French Polynesia - one of the three big "phosphate rocks" of the Pacific.
Almost the entire surface of the island was once covered with a thick layer of guano, sedimentary bird droppings that accumulated over several millennia. The high level of phosphorus in Nauru guano made it an ideal raw material for fertilizers and explosives. Exploitation of the island's guano reserves started at the turn of the last century.
The business become so lucrative that by the time Nauru achieved independence in the 1960s, the country had the highest per capita income in the world. Unfortunately, after a century of exploitation the phosphate reserves have been almost entirely depleted. Decades of strip mining have devastated over 80 percent of the nation's land, leaving it a barren wasteland of jagged limestone pinnacles up to 15 meters (49 ft.) high. With the end of phosphate mining, the country's economy collapsed, and the devastation left by strip mining mostly eliminated the chance of establishing a tourist industry.
Today, with a population of about 10,000, the island of Nauru, a minuscule 5 kilometers in diameter, has only a 150-meter-wide strip of fertile land left along one of it shores. The entire population relies on a single desalination plant for its freshwater supply.
For a time, Nauru tried to survive as a tax haven for shady financial operations. However, faced with international pressure, the local government put a stop such practices. The island's latest money-making plan involved hosting an Australian center for asylum seekers. In 2007 the new government of Australia decided to abandon the facility.
Today the future of Nauru remains uncertain.
Read more about Nauru on Atlas Obscura...
Category: Anomalous Islands, Disaster Areas, Long Now Locations
Location: Nauru
Edited by: stanestane, cobaltbluetony, Dylan, wythe, littlebrumble, Mark_Casey